Despite rocky spring, Pirates still counting on Mitch Keller to anchor starting rotation

When Derek Shelton named Chad Kuhl the Opening Day starter, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager refused to reveal the order for the rest of his starting rotation.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington clarified the situation somewhat, affirming he expects left-hander Tyler Anderson and righties JT Brubaker, Trevor Cahill and Mitch Keller to make starts.

“And there will be more than that,” Cherington said. “We know that we’ll be calling on more guys than that.”

There are multiple reasons for their reluctance to name the rotation, especially after the turnover on the Pirates pitching staff this offseason. They traded their past two Opening Day starters, Jameson Taillon (2019) and Joe Musgrove, cut ties with Chris Archer and Trevor Williams and allowed Derek Holland to leave via free agency.

Compounding matters, lefty Steven Brault, voted the 2020 Steve Blass Award winner by the BBWAA as the team’s top pitcher, will miss at least the first two months of the season with a lat strain. Veteran right-hander Cahill, signed March 12, still needs time to stretch out his arm and build up beyond throwing a couple of innings.

Where Brault and Kuhl started last season pitching piggyback, the Pirates don’t sound sure about how they’re going to use their rotation through the first month of the season, other than that it will go deeper than the traditional five starters. New acquisitions such as Wil Crowe, Chase De Jong and Miguel Yajure could get spot starts.

“The other thing comes into it is just managing innings,” Shelton said, “because we’re having to cover 1,500 innings, and last year we only played 60 games.”

One thing that could ease concerns is if Keller can live up to expectations. Once the club’s top prospect, he struggled as a rookie and missed six weeks last season with an oblique injury. Keller finished strong, not allowing a hit over 11 innings in his final two starts.

The Pirates were hoping Keller, who turns 25 on April 4, could anchor their starting rotation. First, he has to show better fastball command. He was hit hard this spring, with a .434 batting average against, 16.20 ERA and 3.12 WHIP through his first four outings, and he gave up four walks in his final start.

“You can’t get hung up on results right now because you’re just trying to get ready for the season and make sure we’re getting the reps in and you’re working,” Keller said. “So you can’t hang your head on results and stuff like that, but I feel really good and ready to go for the season.”

The Pirates are counting as much from Keller, even though the weight of expectations adversely affected previous talented, young pitchers such as Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow and Taillon.

“Obviously, Mitch has really good stuff, and he worked hard this winter to hold the stuff that he had had at the end of last season, in terms of the velocity and the shape on his breaking balls,” Cherington said. “It’s really about dominating counts, really, being able to control counts and be in the strike zone and use that stuff to his advantage. So he’s working hard at it. … We’ve got a lot of faith in the effort he’s putting in and certainly a lot of faith in the talent, and looking forward to seeing him continue to improve.”