Kevin Gorman: Mitch Keller's next start should be for Pirates

This is a complicated time for the Pittsburgh Pirates and their pitching staff, with top starters Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams on the injured list.

So I’ll make this simple.

It’s time for Mitch Keller to make his major league debut.

Keller isn’t just the top prospect in the organization but one of the best in baseball, as MLB Pipeline ranked him the No. 4 right-hander in the minors. The 23-year-old is on the cusp of making it to the major leagues, with a 4-0 record and 3.83 ERA at Triple-A Indianapolis this season.

That Keller was scratched from his start Sunday against Norfolk gave Pirates fans hope he could make his major league debut at PNC Park this week, possibly in the open spot against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. Yet Keller is scheduled to start for the Indianapolis Indians on Tuesday.

General manager Neal Huntington said earlier Sunday afternoon on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM that the Pirates are “keeping our eyes and ears on Mitch” as he adds a third pitch to complement the high-90s fastball and 12-to-6 curveball in his repertoire.

“Mitch is in the process of solidifying the addition of a slider/cutter,” Huntington said. “Our conversations have been getting close. We’d really like to try to solidify this change before we have him try to attack major league hitters.”

That’s a fair explanation for what is keeping Keller from the majors as his record isn’t indicative of his ups and downs this season. Keller has a 1.50 WHIP, allowing 41 hits and 19 walks in 40 innings, and has surrendered five home runs. Four of those homers came in his past four starts.

For all of his projections as a top-of-the-rotation arm, he is far from a finished product. But Huntington said Keller has fared “fairly well” in three of his past four starts since first mention of the addition of the third pitch, with three wins and a no-decision.

In his most recent outing, against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last Tuesday, Keller allowed two runs (one a homer) on three hits, with eight strikeouts and two walks in a 4-2 victory.

That was a bounce-back from his previous performance, when Keller threw 83 pitches in three innings in allowing three runs — all on a homer — on four hits, with four strikeouts and three walks in a 5-4 loss to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 8.

Even when Keller gave up back-to-back homers in the first inning against Louisville on May 2, he responded by striking out six without a walk and not allowing another run over the next five innings in a 5-3 victory.

As much as the Pirates have a plan in place for developing Keller, he told me in March that he planned to pitch in the majors this season. But he wasn’t anywhere near ready in spring training, when Keller relied too heavily upon his fastball, and pitching coach Ray Searage called his changeup “too firm.”

“When I do get up there, I want to be a big piece to what we’re trying to aim for here, a World Series,” Keller said in Bradenton, Fla. “I can’t really decide when that’s going to be, when I go up. It’s out of my hands. I just focus on getting better every day.”

That’s what I like about Keller. He exudes confidence and believes he belongs with the Pirates.

His mental makeup is different than that of their last top pitching prospect, Tyler Glasnow, who looked lost in the majors as both a starter and reliever before blossoming with the Tampa Bay Rays after being included in the Chris Archer trade.

Perhaps the Pirates are being cautious because of Glasnow, whose 6-1 record and 1.86 ERA has made that trade look lopsided in favor of the Rays. Perhaps the Pirates are trying to prevent Keller from reaching Super Two status, which would give him an extra year of arbitration and cost them money.

But the Pirates have tried starting Nick Kingham and Steven Brault without much success. They had better luck using Montana DuRapau as the opener on Saturday in San Diego, but that takes a toll on the bullpen.

With Taillon on the 60-day IL, the Pirates are short a starting pitcher. Huntington said they are “cautiously optimistic” about Williams, who is on the 10-day IL, but his absence leaves them without their top two returning starters from last season.

It’s fair to call these desperate times for the Pirates.

But promoting Keller isn’t a desperate measure.

The Pirates need starting pitching.

Keller is their best prospect, one of the best in baseball. They owe it to the major league club, which concluded an 11-game road trip with a 7-4 record, to have a fighting chance to stay in contention in the NL Central by putting their best pitchers on the mound.

It’s time to give Keller a call and hand him the ball. The next time we see Mitch pitch, it should be for the Pirates.

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