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Pirates A to Z: After evolving into All-Star, staff ace, Mitch Keller seeking long-term contract | TribLIVE.com
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Pirates A to Z: After evolving into All-Star, staff ace, Mitch Keller seeking long-term contract

Kevin Gorman
Kevin Gorman
6805993_web1_ptr-BucsNationals07-091523
Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review
Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller delivers against the Nationals during the first inning on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, at PNC Park.

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z, an alphabetical, player-by-player look at the 40-man roster.

Player: Mitch Keller

Positions: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Age: 27

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 220 pounds

2023 MLB statistics: Went 13-9 with a 4.21 ERA and 1.25 WHIP, 210 strikeouts against 55 walks in 194 1/3 innings over 32 starts.

Contract: Enters second year of arbitration eligibility after making $2,437,500 in 2023.

Acquired: Selected in the second round of the 2014 MLB Draft.

This past season: To say Keller had a breakthrough season is to shortchange him. Not only did he earn his first All-Star appearance but Keller finally became the anchor of the starting rotation and reached several benchmarks for the making of a staff ace.

Keller led the Pirates in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts, eclipsing the 200-mark for the first time while making 32 starts before Pirates manager Derek Shelton decided to rest him for the season finale. This came after being demoted to Triple-A in 2021 and to the bullpen in 2022.

What impressed Shelton the most was how Keller responded to adversity, whether it was finding ways to limit damage in an inning or recovering from a winless July.

“The totality of his season, I think we’ve seen a guy that’s going to help anchor a rotation,” Shelton said. “And why I say that is because we saw him really, really good, probably about as good as he could be. And then, we saw him he hit a little bit of a lull and we saw him bounce out of it — and bounce out of it not only in terms of what his usage should be, how he should pitch, where his velocity’s at.

“I think that’s the sign of a really good pitcher, because when you go through stretches when you’re not throwing the ball as well, it’s how you bounce out of those stretches. He had to do the whole circle this year.”

Keller earned his first Opening Day start and allowed four runs on five hits and four walks while striking out eight to get a no-decision in a 5-4 win at the Cincinnati Reds on March 30. He followed that by recording five of the staff’s 18 quality starts in April, going 3-0 with a 3.53 ERA as the Pirates raced out to the best record in the National League.

After his first defeat, an 8-1 loss at the Tampa Bay Rays on May 3 where Keller allowed one earned run, he responded with his two best performances of the season.

On May 8, Keller recorded the first complete-game shutout of his career, outdueling Colorado Rockies ace Kyle Freeland by striking out eight while giving up four hits and one walk in a 2-0 win at PNC Park to end the Pirates’ seven-game losing streak.

“That’s a big-boy start. Wow,” Shelton said. “You’re in the midst of a seven-game stretch (and) he goes out and does that. That’s what guys who start Opening Day do. They go out and stop things like that. He stopped it with an exclamation mark.”

Keller threw 77 of his 103 pitches for strikes, getting 20 called strikes and 11 swings and misses, per Statcast, while mixing a four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker, sweeper and curveball.

“The execution was elite, that was for sure,” former Pirates catcher Austin Hedges said. “There were sequences where he was throwing every pitch on the corner, no matter whether it was on the top, in, out or bottom. That’s about as clean as it gets for a guy with that type of arsenal.”

Keller followed that performance with another gem, striking out a career-best 13 without a walk in allowing four hits over seven innings in a 4-0 win May 14 at the Baltimore Orioles, who would go on to win 101 games and clinch the AL East title.

After throwing 16 consecutive scoreless innings, Keller was named NL player of the week May 15.

“I can’t think of any one better,” Keller said of the back-to-back outings. “I couldn’t even imagine doing that then going out on Mother’s Day and striking out 13 against the Orioles. It turns out to be a really good team. I think at the time we knew they were a really good team. Now, over 100 wins, that’s probably one of the cooler outings I’ve had. That was a lot of fun.”

Keller later went a stretch of 20 innings without issuing a walk and, by May 27, was tied for the National League lead in wins (six) and innings pitched (68 2/3) and ranked second in WHIP (1.02), strikeouts (85), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.31) and quality starts (eight).

“Once you get a little bit of confidence, you step on it more and keep going,” Keller said. “That all comes with confidence. Any pitcher will tell you that the more confidence you have, the more you’re able to spin it and do all different types of things with the baseball. I feel like I’m in complete control out there.”

After his All-Star appearance — where Keller surrendered a home run to Tampa’s Yandy Diaz but struck out Texas’ Adolis Garcia — Keller struggled in July by going 0-4 with a 6.28 ERA and 1.61 WHIP.

Keller was in demand at the trade deadline, but the Pirates put a high price tag on him and opted to keep him. He rewarded their faith by becoming the pitcher they had long envisioned. He went 4-2 over the final two months of the season.

“Just learning to navigate when I’m not feeling the best or the worst,” Keller said. “In between starts, just managing to go five or six. It’s huge for the bullpen. It’s huge for the team just to be able to do that, whether it may be my best outing or not. I think that’s just something I’ve learned is I’ve gotta cover innings. That saves the bullpen and saves what we’re doing throughout the series and the next few games after that.”

Keller had 12 strikeouts over seven innings in a 7-4 win over Milwaukee on Aug. 18. In his final start of the season, Keller set a new club standard for right-handers, breaking A.J. Burnett’s record for most strikeouts in a season with 210. Only lefties Bob Veale and Oliver Perez had more in a season as Pirates.

“I think it validates all the hard work he put in over the offseason and how consistent he was through the year,” Shelton said. “You don’t get to that number unless you’re really consistent throughout the year, and Mitch has been really consistent. It’s just another building block for him.”

Keller edged All-Star closer David Bednar by one first-place vote to win the Steve Blass Award as the team’s top pitcher for the second consecutive season, as voted by members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

“The biggest maturation that I personally saw in Mitch Keller was the maturation of being emotional and controlling himself,” Shelton said. “Emotional is probably a bad word, it’s just maturing. You can have this stuff, but when you take that mindset that you’re gonna be able to do that, and maybe that’s probably the better way to say it, is the mindset of it, that’s where I really saw him make the most growth.”

The future: Keller enters his second year of arbitration with the upper hand, given his All-Star season and the state of the Pirates’ starting rotation.

Johan Oviedo has elected to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, a procedure from which JT Brubaker, Max Kranick and top-10 prospect Mike Burrows are all recovering.

MLB Trade Rumors projected Keller to earn $6 million, which would be a significant raise from his $2,437,500 salary last season. The Pirates could seek a long-term deal with Keller, who turned down a reportedly low-ball offer last spring.

With Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and outfielder Bryan Reynolds locked up to eight-year contracts, Keller could be considered the next franchise cornerstone. The Pirates also have to consider signing shortstop Oneil Cruz, however, and will have to spend on starting pitching in free agency or through trades.

“Absolutely, I’m really excited for this offseason. I think it’s gonna be great,” Keller said. “Hopefully we can get something going with the extension talks. … I would love to play here. We have Reynolds and Key locked up. Hopefully we can get Cruz. We have all these different pieces that we can add. I would love to be part of it and be here for however many years. I think we have a really good window here to really do something special.”

Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.

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