After taking the mound for one last time in 2024, Mitch Keller characterized his sixth season in the major leagues as one that was "up and down" and despite seeing an uptick in velocity, the right-hander's season ended on one final low as he suffered his 12th loss in a 5-2 contest against the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at PNC Park.
Keller threw five innings, allowed six hits, gave up three earned runs, walked two and struck out six while working decisively between his fastball, slider, sweeper and sinker. He was coming off a performance in Cincinnati where he only worked 3 1/3 innings and gave up eight earned runs to the Reds in an 8-3 loss, so he was able to find a bright spot in his final outing of the season, despite his recent struggles.
"Yeah, felt good. Everything just felt like it was in sync. I felt really good out there," Keller said. "Everything felt loose and just felt good. Obviously disappointing outcome, but happy with that outing for sure."
The Brewers got to Keller for the first time in the third when Joey Ortiz tripled into the right-center gap between Oneil Cruz and Bryan De La Cruz. Ortiz then came around to score when Brice Turang grounded out to Jared Triolo at first base.
Milwaukee tacked on two more runs in the fifth when Sal Frelick led off the inning with a double to center field and was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ortiz. Eric Haase brought Frelick home with a double of his own before scoring on a Turang line-drive single to center field. Take a look:
Lots of mashing going on in this fifth inning pic.twitter.com/ywhJXEnFyf
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) September 26, 2024
Keller gave way to Ryan Borucki in the sixth and brought an end to a rough second half of the season. He finished the season with an 11-12 record in 32 starts and recorded a 4.25 ERA in 178 innings of work. He also struck out 166 batters as opposing hitters recorded a .261 average against him.
"There's definitely a lot of highlights up there and definitely a lot of lowlights," Keller said about his 2024 season. "But overall, a lot of good things to look back on and a lot of things to keep working for. I don't know, it's weird. I'm happy with it and also disappointed in some areas too, so a lot more I can do for myself and a lot more I can do for this team going into next year for sure."
Keller started the 2024 season as one of the strongest pieces of the Pirates' rotation and earned a 9-4 record while recording a 1.30 ERA in May and a 2.35 ERA in June. He was solid and consistent and formed a solid 1-2-3 punch with Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. But, like he has in the past, Keller started to fall off in the second half of the season.
The right-hander has had an ERA north of six over the past two months and only reached the seven-inning mark once while giving up three or more runs in seven of his 10 starts and seven or more runs in three of those starts.
The last three months of 2023 were about the same as Keller recorded an ERA above 5.28 in two of the final three months of the season. When I asked Derek Shelton about what led to Keller's struggles this season, he said it had a lot to do with his command.
"Early in the year, his command was really good. To be able to run the sinker, like even front door into lefties, to be able to use the other two pitches, I thought his command was better," Shelton said. "When he wasn't at his best, he didn't have the command we saw him have, actually both years, at the beginning of the year."
So where does the former second-round pick out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa go from here?
Keller said he'll have to review his season after the year is done and find a way to cure his struggles for future seasons. That will consist of rewatching his starts and then also possibly seeking advice from other pitchers.
"It's tough right now to name one thing on it, but definitely just go back and review after the season," Keller said. "After this year, I like going back and watching my starts, kind of in a condensed form, just to see if there's anything alarming that popped out to me from one start to the next or over month-to-month. Definitely, just a lot of things to keep growing on and maybe picking other people's brains, other starters around the league just to see how they put a full season together."
But if anything is for certain, Keller will return next season to head a rotation with Skenes and Jones for a full season. With Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter, Johan Oviedo and possibly Bubba Chandler also in the mix at some point, as well, the Pirates could have one of the better rotations in the league and that puts a smile on Keller's face.
"I think we have a lot of great talent in this room, especially on the pitching staff," Keller said. "I couldn't be more excited to go a full season with Paul and Jared and Bailey and Ortiz, man. A hell of a season for him. He and Paul carried us along the way there for the last half of the season. Yeah, just couldn't be more excited about it."
