We still have developmental goals in terms of his delivery and what he’s doing, and we’ll continue to work on those through the offseason and into next spring training.
That’s severe signs of growth and being mentally strong. Since he’s been back up, I think we’ve seen him, if he’s gotten into trouble, minimize that damage. “Early in the year, before we optioned him out, I think we at times saw innings get away from him. I think mentally has probably been the biggest part of it,” Shelton said. In six starts over the final month, Keller was 1-1 with a 4.71 ERA and 24 strikeouts against 11 walks. Louis Cardinals, tossing five scoreless innings and allowing six hits and one walk while striking out six on 89 pitches to help snap a five-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory. Keller had one of his most promising starts on Aug. When Mitch Keller is on his game, he makes hitters wave and walk away at this pitch. The Pirates saw a positive in that Keller remained engaged and committed to turning it around, pointing to those traits as signs of growth and maturity in a young starting pitcher.
“You don’t have to be perfect with every pitch if you’re him, because his stuff’s really good,” Cherington said, “but a little more consistent execution and then back up from that, we just really want him to be totally committed to every pitch, full confidence and commitment to every pitch. He pitched one inning of relief against Memphis, facing three batters and getting two strikeouts and a groundout while relying primarily on his fastball on eight pitches. Keller first worked out of the bullpen for Indianapolis, reducing the pressure he was placing on himself. We just got to a point where we felt like, let’s change the environment.” We wanted to give it as much time as we could coming into the season. There were times where it looked good and times where it didn’t look as good. “But the execution in games was inconsistent, obviously, as we all saw. “I guess we just got to a point where we felt like, here’s a young, really talented young guy who’s working hard and we believe in and really has been, we believe, working on the things that we feel are going to be helpful to him between starts while he was in the big leagues,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. So was his demeanor, especially after Keller declared himself “probably the most (ticked) off guy in this locker room.” Two days later, the Pirates optioned Keller to Triple-A Indianapolis in hopes that he could turn it around. At that point, he was 3-7 with a 7.04 ERA and 1.796 WHIP over 47 1/3 innings in 12 starts.Īlthough he led the Pirates with 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings, his 5.5 walks per nine were alarming. Keller bottomed out on June 10 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when he gave up four runs on five hits, three walks and hit two batters with 0-2 counts in 2 2/3 innings in a 6-3 loss. I’m not sure what’s going to come of Derek Shelton as a major league manager or Mitch Keller as a major league starter, but if either of them is ever a part of paying off on the promise to turn the Pirates around, this is going to be a special moment to look back on. Keller’s confidence took a hit when the rollercoaster results continued in the regular season, with a good outing followed by a bad one as he went 1-3 with an 8.20 ERA, 19 strikeouts and 13 walks in the first month. He had an 11.91 ERA in five starts, walking eight and striking out 11 in 11 1/3 innings. Instead of seizing the start on Opening Day, Keller struggled with his command in spring training. “When you take away four of the five starting pitchers, that’s a big group to make up again.” “It’s definitely a weird last year, seeing all of our top-end starters go other places,” Keller said. They placed pressure on Keller by trading previous Opening Day starters Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon in January, banking on Keller to move into the top of the rotation. This past season: After pitching a combined 69 2/3 innings over 16 starts in his first two seasons, the Pirates were hoping their top prospect the previous two seasons would take a big leap in his first full season. During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z: An alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Miguel Yajure.Ģ021 MLB statistics: Keller was 5-11 with a 6.17 ERA and 1.79 WHIP in 100 2/3 innings over 23 starts.Ĭontract: Not eligible for arbitration until 2023.Īcquired: Drafted by Pirates in second round in 2014.