{"id":103131,"date":"2025-06-29T19:11:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T23:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=103131"},"modified":"2025-06-29T19:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T23:11:58","slug":"cubs-nearing-trade-starting-pitching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/29\/cubs-nearing-trade-starting-pitching\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Cubs Nearing a Possible Trade for Mitch Keller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">At this point in the season, the Cubs are in an ideal position, most would say. They sit atop the NL Central and are 2nd in the National League overall. They have had ample run production for most of the year courtesy of players like Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, and more. One area that they have had struggles with at times is their starting pitching. They have had injuries to their two best pitchers, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/13\/cubs-justin-steele-out-2025-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Justin Steele<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/04\/cubs-shota-imanaga-exits-game-hamstring-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">Shota Imanaga<\/a>. While Imanaga is finally back, Steele is out for the year, leaving Chicago without their ace. Because of this, the Cubs have confirmed they will be searching for pitching before the trade deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">A Trade for Mitch Keller?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Cubs &amp; the Pirates have been engaged in serious trade talks regarding RHP Mitch Keller for more than a week, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BNightengale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BNightengale<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Keller is currently in the second year of a five-year, $77 million contract. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0Vh9XjdsaW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0Vh9XjdsaW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cubs Zone (@CubsZone) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CubsZone\/status\/1939334071202537842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Earlier today, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/staff\/2648242001\/bob-nightengale\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bob Nightengale<\/a> of USA Today<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">reported that the Cubs and the Pirates have been immersed in serious trade talks concerning Mitch Keller for over a week.<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Keller has been on the Cubs&#8217; list of possible trade targets this year, but it <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is now becoming a real scenario.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> This year, the RHP possesses a 3.90 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 99.1 innings pitched. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">He has been an average to slightly above-average pitcher throughout his career, struggling with hard contact but inducing a high number<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0of ground balls while avoiding barrels.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Keller is currently in the second year of a five-year contract with the Pirates worth $77 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While the Cubs&#8217; farm system isn&#8217;t quite as good as it has been, they still have some impressive prospects. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Chicago does not appear to have any untouchable prospects <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">at the moment<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> when it comes to potential trades. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">They will most likely have to give up one of their best prospects along with 1-2 other lower-ranked players in their system. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/06\/19\/cubs-prospects-might-move-mlb-trade-deadline\/\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Some possible prospects that could be traded <\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">include<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Owen Caissie, Kevin Alcantara, or James Triantos. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">But realistically, it could be anyone in their farm system based on what the Pirates want and\/or need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this point in the season, the Cubs are in an ideal position, most would say. They sit atop the NL Central and are 2nd in the National League overall. They have had ample run production for most of the year courtesy of players like Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, and more. One area [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5567,"featured_media":103153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[5933,2762,28268],"class_list":["post-103131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-justin-steele","tag-mitch-keller","tag-shota-imanaga"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103154,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103131\/revisions\/103154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}