Pirates GM Ben Cherington believes Mitch Keller is in a 'good spot' at Triple-A Indianapolis

Ben Cherington says that it was “completely coincidental” that he was in Indianapolis at the same time as Mitch Keller, but the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager used it to spend time talking with the struggling right-hander.

“I really believe he’s in a good spot, and he’s committed,” Cherington said Saturday on a video conference call. “He wants to be good. He wants to be back in the big leagues, but he knows he has some work to do to do that, and we’ll help him in any way we can.”

The 25-year-old Keller, the organization’s top prospect the past two years, was 3-7 with a 7.04 ERA and 1.796 WHIP over 47 1/3 innings in 12 starts this season. Although he led the Pirates with 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings, his erratic control and 5.5 walks per nine were alarming.

Cherington said the Pirates demoted Keller to their Triple-A affiliate on June 12, two days after giving up four runs on five hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, to lessen the pressure while working on improving his fastball command.

“I guess we just got to a point where we felt like, here’s a young, really talented young guy who’s working hard and we believe in and really has been, we believe, working on the things that we feel are going to be helpful to him between starts while he was in the big leagues,” Cherington said. “But the execution in games was inconsistent, obviously, as we all saw. There were times where it looked good and times where it didn’t look as good. We wanted to give it as much time as we could coming into the season. There was no magic date or anything. We just got to a point where we felt like, let’s change the environment.”

Cherington emphasized the need for Keller to be “totally committed” to the execution of his pitches, from the work he does between starts to moving well on the mound to having clarity with his game plan. Keller expressed frustration with his performance after his last start, saying he was the “most (ticked)-off guy in this locker room,” and it showed in his body language on the mound.

“You don’t have to be perfect with every pitch if you’re him, because his stuff’s really good,” Cherington said, “but a little more consistent execution and then back up from that, we just really want him to be totally committed to every pitch, full confidence and commitment to every pitch. Now that’s easier said than done.”

Keller pitched one inning of relief for the Indianapolis Indians on Wednesday night, where he faced three batters and got two strikeouts and a groundout while relying primarily on his fastball on eight pitches against Memphis.

“He’s been really engaged and receptive,” Cherington said. “We believe he’s going to get better. He’s going to be really a good major league pitcher. He’s so like so many other guys who have gone through this. You get to the big leagues, you’re really talented, you had a little adversity, and you have to respond and figure some things out, and then you do and you come back and you succeed. We believe he’s gonna do that, not unlike (how) a lot of other guys have.”