Mitch Keller’s first appearance back in Indianapolis Wednesday night couldn’t have gone more smoothly. He threw just eight pitches, seven of them strikes, with a pair of punchouts in a 1-2-3 inning.
When he got back to the dugout, Indians pitching coach Joel Hanrahan asked if that was fun.
“Yeah, but some of those pitches might not work in Pittsburgh,” Keller responded.
“Who cares?” Hanrahan said back “They worked here right now.”
That’s been the message for Keller ever since he was optioned back to the minors on June 12. It’s not about what he did in the majors at the start of the season, it’s what he does going forward.
“One of the things I told him on his first day here was, ‘You're in Indianapolis now. You’re not going to be on the front page of the newspaper, you're not going to be on MLB Network,” Hanrahan said over Zoom Friday. “You have a chance to just go out and pitch here. You’ve got one inning. Let's see what you've got.”
Keller is working out of the bullpen in the short term in Indianapolis, aimed at “to give him a bit of a blow” in his workload. He will pitch two innings Sunday before the Pirates map out a plan for him again.
Many expected Keller to be the Pirates’ top starter coming into the year, but he was very inconsistent and pitched to a 7.04 ERA over 47 1/3 innings. He alternated between poor and good starts for most of the year, but stumbled in consecutive outings towards the end.
Keller said after his last start on June 10, one that he didn't get out of the third inning of, that "I'm probably the most pissed-off guy in this locker room." Despite Derek Shelton saying after that start that there hadn't been discussions to option Keller, two days later, they made the change.
“It’s a tough move, but it’s a move that’s important for both Mitch and the Pirates,” Shelton said while announcing the move. “We need to get him in a situation where he’s commanding the fastball better, he’s doing things that are making him an effective big-league pitcher. We really feel he’s going to be a good big-league pitcher, but we’ve got to put him in a situation to do that.”
Indianapolis is definitely a lower-pressure situation for the 25-year-old right-hander.
“It’s gonna be fun, but it's not gonna be an overnight thing for him,” Hanrahan said. “It’s something that's gonna take time and now there's. Fortunately, there's not a timeline that says ‘back to the big leagues (on a certain date).’ He's gonna have to earn the right to go back to the big leagues. He’ll get tired of being down here at some point, so he'll be pushing for it. Hopefully, the performance goes with it as well.”
Working with Hanrahan just might be what Keller needs at the moment. The former All-Star closer has been a fast riser in the Pirates’ system as a coach, drawing compliments for his work on the mental side of the game in particular. One such example is with Sam Howard, who went from a waiver claim to one of the National League’s top strikeout pitchers after working with Hanrahan at the alternate site last year.
Hanrahan has all the faith that Keller can work out of what he is going through.
“He’s got the pitches, the mix and the attitude to be able to be a successful starter,” Hanrahan said.
Attitude just might be the key.
Early in his playing career, Hanrahan had what he described as a body language problem, noting that opposing batters would tell him that he didn’t look confident on the mound. He made an attitude adjustment then and broke out as a pitcher.
Could Keller do the same?
“I think walking around with some confidence would be a good thing to have,” Hanrahan said. “I wouldn't say that we need to work on his body language. Even when he's had his best games, it doesn't look like his body language is great. I think what he is trying to do is be that even-keel guy. Don't ride the highs too high or the lows too low. He's kind of just trying to work that out.”
To do that, Hanrahan wants to “beat it back into his head” that this supposed to still be fun, even with the bump in the road.
“Baseball is still a game. Baseball is fun,” Hanrahan said. “We've got a great group of guys that are having fun playing the game. Once you jump on board here, hopefully you can have some fun here and take it with you. I know that Shelty says that he wants to have fun all the time too. Winning is fun. Pitching good is fun.”
