Mitch Keller seeks to improve on breakout 2023 MLB season with all-star game under his belt and new contract in hand

CEDAR RAPIDS — This spring training was different for Mitch Keller. This season will be different for Mitch Keller.

Gone are the questions about whether the Cedar Rapids resident is a legit major league starting pitcher. A legit major league pitcher, period.

He is.

The 27-year-old right-hander is coming off a season that saw him post career bests across the board. He won 13 games, threw 194 1/3 innings, set a Pittsburgh Pirates record for most strikeouts in a season (210).

Keller was selected for and pitched in the 2023 Major League All-Star Game as well. He’ll get the opening day start Thursday for Pittsburgh at Miami against the Marlins (3:10 first pitch).

The Marlins also have a Cedar Rapids native in lefty A.J. Puk, who is attempting to go from late-game reliever to starting pitcher this season.

“Surreal,” Keller said in a weekend phone call from Bradenton, Fla., the Pirates’ spring training site. “You are just living in the moment, you’re not really thinking about it. But it doesn’t seem real sometimes.

“I think I’ll appreciate it more when I’m done playing ... You are so caught up in the moment, you don’t appreciate what you’ve done.”

What Keller has done is persevere and overcome.

He went from a high draft pick (second round out of Xavier High School in 2014) to minor-league dominance to can’t-miss prospect who seemed to miss. He lost 23 games combined in 2021 and 2022, got sent back to the minors at one point.

But things finally clicked last season. He threw a cut fastball more, which perfectly bridged his hard stuff and softer stuff, mainly a sweeper.

That added another weapon against left-handed hitters. His command improved, too, and voila.

“The perfect storm at the perfect time,” he said.

The Pirates were so convinced about Keller’s improvement, they recently signed him to a contract extension through the 2028 season. The deal is worth $77 million: $5.4 million this season, $15 million next season, $16.5 million in 2026, $18 million in 2027 and $20 million in 2028.

He got a signing bonus of just over $2 million. He’ll have a hotel suite for road trips.

“Obviously life changing in a lot of different ways,” Keller said. “Just really cool with the journey and the path that I’ve had. Not a typical path most people who get a contract go on. There have been a lot of pieces that have helped me along the way, a lot of people. Coaches, family, everybody. It’s like everybody is involved in it, and that’s really cool.

“And it takes a lot of stress off pitching and fighting for a job every year. I can just go out there and focus on whatever it is going to take to win the game. I’m just really excited about that part of it.”

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Keller’s velocity was down late in spring training, though he said he’s not concerned. That’s typical for pitchers.

His goal was arm management considering his career high in innings last season, to ramp up for the regular season, try some different things, some different pitch sequencing.

“Just build off of last year,” Keller said. “Just get better in all the stats. Be healthy all year, the all-star game would be awesome (again), because that means you are doing some really good things. Just try to beat everything I did last year, just try and put our team in positions to win. Because that’s the ultimate goal.

“I want to be impactful, be impactful on the winning side. Let’s win baseball games and make the playoffs.”

The Pirates were 76-86 last season and have some exciting young players. The National League Central appears to be wide open, so you never know.

Pittsburgh hasn’t been a playoff team since 2015.

“We’re really young, and we’re really talented,” Keller said. “We were talking how last year the Diamondbacks won eight more games than us and made it to the World Series. There’s no reason we can’t win eight more games. There is a lot of optimism going into this year, for sure.”

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