BRADENTON, Fla. — The Angels already have indicated Shohei Ohtani will pitch their season opener, so it’s too late for the Pirates to be the first big-league team to name its Opening Day starter. There is still time for Derek Shelton to be the first National League manager to do it, though.
“Oh, no,” the typically tight-lipped Shelton said Monday after the first full-squad workout of spring training. “I will yield that to someone else. When do we open? (March) 30? Yeah, about (March) 25 you can ask that question.”
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Shelton probably already knows his starter, even if he won’t yet reveal it. There is at least one pitcher in camp who is lobbying for the job.
“I want to be that guy,” right-hander Mitch Keller said. “Being the Opening Day starter would be sweet, so I’m going to work my (butt) off to be that dude.”
A case could be made for Rich Hill, an 18-year veteran whose only Opening Day start came with the A’s in 2016 when Sonny Gray was scratched because of food poisoning. However, it would be hard to pass up Keller, 26, after he made huge strides last season.
“We’ve seen (Keller) grow up,” Shelton said. “We’ve seen him grow up physically. We’re seeing him grow up mentally.”
A year ago, Keller rediscovered the zip on his fastball — it touched 100 mph in workouts — then showed off a new sweeper during spring training. When his slider faltered midway through the season, Keller concocted an effective two-seamer on the fly.
Over 31 outings, including a team-high 29 starts, Keller posted a 3.91 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. Although his strikeout rate decreased slightly from the previous year, Keller shaved a full point off his walk rate.
A second-round pick in 2014, Keller didn’t live up to expectations in his first three seasons. Last year, finally, he produced results that matched his ability.
“I think it’s just confidence,” Keller said. “My first thought every game was, ‘I know I’m gonna do well today.’ I lost a little bit of that my first couple years in the big leagues. It started coming back with that mentality of, ‘Today’s my day. I’m gonna shove.’”
Biggest Stuff+ improvers this season from last season:
1) Kyle Wright
2) Mitch Keller
3) Aaron Ashby
4) Shohei Ohtani
5) Chris Archer
6) Spencer StriderWith @RobBiertempfel, how Keller altered his arsenal, including adding this slider, #2 by Stuff+. https://t.co/xAGIXfcaCa pic.twitter.com/CswH09Qw7A
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) October 3, 2022
Is there any way to quantify something as intangible as confidence? Look at Keller’s double-play numbers. Last season, he was tied for fourth in NL with 22 double plays induced. He ranked second in the league with 1.25 double plays per nine innings pitched.
Earlier in his career, Keller easily got flustered when someone reached first base, and that runner too often wound up scoring. Keller had a 7.13 ERA as a rookie in 2019 and a 6.17 ERA in 2021.
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Last year, Keller was able to keep his poise and erase runners by using the two-seamer to produce a career-high 49.9 percent ground-ball rate.
“Knowing I had a ground-ball pitch, I knew having a guy on first base wasn’t the end of the world,” Keller said.
Adding the sinker expanded Keller’s arsenal to five pitches. This spring, he’s tinkering with pitch No. 6. This one acts like a cutter when it’s up and in the zone — a tool to nudge left-handed batters off the plate — and dives hard when it’s at the bottom of the zone, what he described as a gyro action.
Keller threw the gyro-cutter in 2019, but junked it the past two seasons. He decided to bring it back after seeing his poor numbers against lefty batters (.276/.359/.390) last year.
“Against lefties, I was kind of tied up with throwing the four-seamer up, the curveball and my changeup too much,” Keller said. “Having something else is going to be huge, if it works. We’ll find out this spring when we get to some hitters.”
Keller’s growing list of weapons can be a bit confusing. When he threw his first live batting practice a couple of days ago, catcher Tyler Heineman had trouble going through all six pitches and couldn’t get on the same page with his pitcher. No worries, though — Keller took charge.
“It was a good feeling to already know what I wanted to throw,” Keller said. “In the past, I hadn’t felt that way; I threw whatever the catcher threw down. Now, I know what my pitches do and I know what works and I know what’s feeling good that day. So I already know what I want to go to, and that’s a really good feeling — knowing what the pitch is gonna do and feeling comfortable with all of them.”
(Top photo: Harrison Barden / Pittsburgh Pirates)