This Pirates Starter Should Gain Interest at The Trade Deadline
- Aaron Gandia
- Jul 2
- 2 min read
The MLB Trade Deadline is scheduled for July 31st at 6:00 Eastern Standard Time. As the date slowly approaches, teams are looking ahead to see what options are available to help their teams. Starting pitchers are highly valued assets that cost more as a result of their high volatility in today's game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starter Mitch Keller should be a highly attractive piece for MLB teams trying to acquire starting pitching help. In a time when pitchers are more volatile than ever, Keller has started at least 29 games every season from 2022-2023 and is currently on pace to do it again this year, with 17 starts. On the surface, a pitcher with a 2-10 record on a mediocre team wouldn't be appealing to a casual baseball fan. However, his solid underlying numbers and strong breaking ball profiles paint a better picture.
He currently has a 3.90 ERA along with a much lower 3.33 FIP, which suggests he's likely to improve as the season progresses. Along with that, he has a six-pitch mix, which gives many different options to pitch to batters. His sweeper and curveball profile the best out of his arsenal, as both offerings have held hitters to under a .200 batting average. The sweeper is his second most used pitch and it has 18 inches of horizontal break, which is 4.0 more inches than the average. His curveball is his second most underutilized pitch as it has 14.2 inches of vertical break, which is 4.5 more than the average. It also has 12.2 inches of horizontal break, which is 2.9 above the average.
Mitch Keller should be one of the most coveted starters as the trade deadline approaches. His diverse arsenal and team-friendly deal, in the 2nd year of a 5-year, $77 million dollar deal, should be green flags for teams trying to pursue him. The underlying numbers suggest a positive uptick in performance, and teams with better pitching development systems will be able to maximize his pitch mix; basically, he should throw the curveball more.
I’m all in on this one