With the news of the Pittsburgh Pirates signing pitcher Mitch Keller to an extension, it’s interesting to look at the path that got him there. The right-handed Keller, 27, was taken out of high school in the second round of the 2014 June Amateur Draft. In 102 games over five seasons for the Pirates, he’s 25-38 with a 4.71 ERA and a 1.449 WHIP. But that doesn’t begin to tell the story. It’s a story about a pitcher determined to turn the Pirates into a winner and a new regime that needed to show it could develop pitchers.
Tracing All-Star Mitch Keller’s Path to a Pirates Extension
After six rough games in the Rookie League in 2015, Keller improved and progressed through the Pirates’ system. By 2018, he was in double-A Altoona, where he posted a 2.72 ERA in 14 starts, earning an invitation to start the Futures Game and a promotion to triple-A Indianapolis. He finished strong in his last eight starts at Indianapolis. By 2019, he was the No. 19 prospect in all of baseball. His work in Indianapolis that year earned him a call-up to the big leagues. Unfortunately, in two stints with the Pirates in 2019, Keller was 1-5 with a 7.13 ERA and 1.833 WHIP. For that 2019 season, the Pirates finished 69-92. Heads would roll.
Behind the Times
On the final day of the 2019 season, Pirates owner Bob Nutting fired manager Clint Hurdle. General manager Neal Huntington was fired after the season. One of the reasons was that the Pirates had fallen behind similarly situated small market teams in terms of analytics and development. Nutting pointed to, among other things, pitchers who had gone on to success after leaving Pittsburgh. He didn’t name names. He didn’t have to. Ex-Pirates Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton flourished in other settings, and fans and media noticed.
Morton had found his way to the Houston Astros, where he was the winner of game seven of the 2017 World Series. Cole was traded to those same Astros in time for the 2018 season. 2019 he was 20-5 with an American League-low 2.50 ERA. Glasnow was part of the disastrous 2018 trade that sent him to the Tampa Bay Rays, along with Austin Meadows and Shane Baz, in exchange for Chris Archer, another reason cited for Huntington’s dismissal. Glasnow turned his career around in 2019, going 6-1 with a 1.78 ERA in an injury-shortened season.
Naturally, a hot topic in the media for all three pitchers was how they had improved after leaving Pittsburgh. Cole and Morton took the high road, each saying that he had become a better pitcher with age. It was Glasnow who was publicly critical of the Pirates’ methods. He blamed his struggles in Pittsburgh on the lack of high-tech pitching software and stated that Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage (who was also let go along with Huntington and Hurdle) wasn’t helpful.
Pressure on Management
One could counter these points by noting that Cole and Morton weren’t horrible pitchers for the Pirates. Cole, in particular, was 19-8 with a 2.60 ERA in 2015. Furthermore, one could query why a struggling pitcher needed software to tell him what he was doing wasn’t working. In any event, right or wrong, there was now a stigma out there for all to see. Against this backdrop, general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton were hired. They had to deliver results with Keller, the first high-profile Pirates pitcher to debut under their watch.
In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Keller pitched to a 2.91 ERA in five games. However, those games covered only 21-2/3 innings. Shelton was cautious with his starters, who had no equivalent of spring training preceding that season. He rarely let them pitch past the fourth inning. The norm was to let the pitch through the order twice. It wasn’t a season from which much could be gleaned.
Thus, the next real test for Keller would come in 2021. Again, not pitching deep into games, by June 10, Keller was 3-7 with a 7.04 ERA. Whether he was weighed down by heavy expectations or needed more development was unknown. In any case, he was finally sent to Indianapolis. He would work with former Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan, a rising star pitching coach there. Keller returned to the Pirates on August 1, producing inconsistent results for the remainder of the season. He finished the year at 5-11 with a 6.17 ERA and 1.788 WHIP.
The Turnaround
Keller’s 5-12 record in 2022 wasn’t an improvement over 2021. Then again, the 2022 Pirates were a lousy team, finishing the year at 62-100. It was 2022 when Keller began to turn things around. After seven games on May 13, he was 0-5 with a 6.61 ERA. He was then moved to the bullpen to work on a sinker. Finally, that did the trick. From when he returned to the rotation on May 31 till the end of the season, he was 5-7 with a 3.22 ERA. He finished the season with a 3.91 ERA.
Big things were expected in 2023, and Keller delivered. Consistent all season long, he was 13-9 and posted a 4.21 ERA and 1.245 WHIP on a losing team. He also recorded 210 strikeouts, tied the National League lead with one shutout, and was named an All-Star. Skeptics would say the Pirates had to have somebody at the All-Star Game, but Keller made it on merit. By the end of June, he was 9-3 with a 3.34 ERA. Anybody who saw the video of Keller’s emotional reaction after finding out he was named to the All-Star Game and wasn’t moved has no soul.
When all the hard work pays off 💛 pic.twitter.com/1AU4YlB6ZU
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 2, 2023
Now he’s the recipient of a well-earned five-year, $77 million contract. In recent years, he has joined teammates Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds as long-term contract signers. If this is to become a trend, David Bednar and Oneil Cruz should be next. However, in Cruz’s case, the Pirates might want to see him put in a healthy full season first. For now, this is Keller’s moment.
“It’s a Cool City”
Keller had been on record of wanting to remain with the Pirates. He believes in his teammates and what the front office is doing. Outsiders may wonder why any ballplayer would want to be there. Pittsburgh, which offers the benefits of a big city with small-town friendliness but without big-city hassle, suits low-key individuals like Keller and Reynolds. On a 2023 Office Ladies podcast, actor Steve Carell named Pittsburgh as his favorite city he had visited in the United States. He said, “I’ve done a couple of movies there, and I liked it, and it’s a cool city.” Keller, Reynolds, and Carell could walk around anywhere in Pittsburgh without being bothered by people. It’s a town unimpressed by celebrity.
Actress Sienna Miller found that out the hard way in 2006 when she was in Pittsburgh for the filming of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. While there, she made unkind remarks about the city in a Rolling Stone interview. Specifically, she said she was in (Bleeps)burgh, which rhymes with Pittsburgh. Unaware, one supposes, that Pittsburghers read national music publications, the backlash caused her to call a press conference and apologize. Miller then posed for a photo with then-Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for the front page of the next morning’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
That evening, she was denied entrance into Folino’s Young’s Tavern on Pittsburgh’s South Side for lack of identification. Witnesses say she stomped on the sidewalk, yelling, “I am a famous actress!” Her mother showed the newspaper’s front page to the bouncer, asking, “Do you know who this is?”
“Yeah,” the bouncer shrugged. “It’s the mayor.”
Main Photo Credits: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports
