After a fantastic 2023 MLB season, the Pittsburgh Pirates are keeping Mitch Keller around for the long haul. The team agreed to a five-year, $77 million contract extension with the 27-year-old on Thursday, according to ESPN insider Jeff Passan.
“Right-hander Mitch Keller and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in agreement on a five-year contract extension,” Passan reported. “After a breakout season in which he struck out 210, the 27-year-old Keller will anchor the rotation for the team that drafted him.”
Keller went 13-9 with a 4.21 ERA over 32 starts in 2023, while posting a 1.245 WHIP and striking out 210 batters over 194 innings. A former second-round selection by the Pirates in the 2014 MLB Draft, he's accumulated a career 25-38 record with a 4.71 ERA over 100 starts.
A five-year veteran of Major League Baseball, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa native was selected as an All-Star in 2023 and figures to anchor Pittsburgh's rotation again in 2024.
Mitch Keller becomes third core member of Pirates to earn extension
Slated to hit free agency after the 2025 campaign, Keller will now call Pennsylvania home for at least the next five seasons. He joins third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes and outfielder Bryan Reynolds, who both signed long-term deals with the club that extend until at least 2030.
“A hard-throwing right-hander Pittsburgh chose in the second round out of an Iowa high school in 2014, Keller was a top prospect but struggled at the outset of his career,” wrote Passan on Thursday.
“He turned it around in 2022 and got a lot of work in 2023, finishing fourth in the National League in innings pitched last season with a nearly 4-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Pirates got off to a hot start in 2023 but faded down the stretch, finishing 76-86 and in fourth place in the NL Central.”
Pittsburgh will be hoping for better fortune in 2024; the team signed multiple veterans, including reliever Aroldis Chapman, left-handed starter Martin Perez, first baseman Rowdy Tellez, catcher Yasmani Grandal and Andrew McCutchen, per Passan.
“I've only been with Pittsburgh, so it's all I really know,” Keller said in the summer of 2023. “I'd love to spend my whole career here, hopefully as long as possible. Having guys like (Ke'Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds) locked up, it's really cool to see some core guys getting locked in. I would love to be a part of that.”
Mitch Keller is now a part of that, and he'll look to help the Pirates return to the postseason in 2024.
Follow Us
Subscribe