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Pirates by Position: Mitch Keller expected to anchor starting rotation that added 2 veterans

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 2/12/2023

Feb. 12—The Pittsburgh Pirates have been touting Mitch Keller as having top-of-the-rotation stuff since he was their top pitching prospect, but the right-hander struggled to show it in his first three major league seasons.

Keller finally gave a glimpse last season, when he led the Pirates in starts (29) and innings pitches (159) and posted a 2.20 ERA over his last seven starts to finish with a sub-4.00 ERA for the first time in his career. Keller, who turns 27 on April 4, appears ready to take the next step.

"Mentally, I think he's in a really good spot," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Keller. "And the reason I say that is because when you go from a prospect to going to the big leagues and struggling and having to battle through and then kind of changing your identity and all, I think we saw Mitch grow into a man last year."

Shelton stressed how important Keller is to anchoring a starting rotation that also returns right-handers JT Brubaker and Roansy Contrearas and added 42-year-old leftty Rich Hill and 30-year-old righty Vince Velasquez through free agency.

Where Brubaker led Pirates starters in strikeouts (147) and was second in starts (28), Contreras (5-5, 3.79 ERA) was effective despite a midseason shutdown and restart. The Pirates traded starters Zach Thompson (Toronto) and Bryse Wilson (Milwaukee) after designating both for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

After spending last offseason working to increase the velocity on his four-seam fastball and adding a sweeping slider to his repertoire, Keller worked this winter on a gyro slider to combat left-handed hitters after they slashed .276/.359/.390 against him last season.

"It just puts you in a really good starting point, having the mentality of knowing, 'That's what my goal is' and less worried about how I can be in the best positions in my delivery," Keller said. "Always looking for those things, but that wasn't the main goal this year because I was already in a really good spot. That just cleans up a lot of that and we don't have to worry about that really. It's more of, 'How can we focus on pitch design?'"

That's where Hill comes in. Playing for his 12th team in 18 seasons and relying as much upon a curveball with a solid spin rate as he does his four-seam fastball, Hill arrives with the expectation to mentor the younger pitchers much the same way Jose Quintana did last season.

"It's been a constant theme throughout every organization or every locker room that I've been in," Hill said. "There's always been a guy that's been older who's consistent about their work habits or goes about their job the right way when they go out there to compete between the lines with a certain intensity and a certain focus that can't be shaken.

"I think that's something everybody needs to learn throughout their career at some point. You can say it but then you show it. The other side of it is going through it yourself and experiencing it. Experience, in my opinion, is the best teacher."

Velasquez is hoping that to be true. He was electric in his first two starts for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016, with 25 strikeouts including 16 against the San Diego Padres, but hasn't lived up to that promise. He was 3-10 with a 5.18 ERA in 121 2/3 innings for the Chicago White Sox last season but hopes to rejuvenate his career as a starter with the Pirates the way Tyler Anderson and Quintana did the past two seasons.

"That's definitely in the back of my mind," Velasquez said, "realizing that I can definitely be one of those assets, one of the guys who come in, potentially be a leader but also take advantage of that opportunity that's being granted."

If Keller, Brubaker, Contreras, Hill and Velasquez comprise the starting rotation, it gives the Pirates flexibility with 24-year-olds Johan Oviedo and Luis Ortiz and top pitching prospects Mike Burrows and Quinn Priester to provide starting depth or pitch out of the bullpen.

"We have a really good group of guys," Keller said. "Everyone kind of brings something else to the table that the other guy doesn't necessarily have. Just being able to bounce ideas off each other, mesh and just go through it together, it's going to be a lot of fun."

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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