The Pirates’ rotation is going to have a very different look in 2021. Gone are Jameson Taillon, Joe Musgrove, Trevor Williams and Chris Archer, the four pitchers who anchored the rotation over the past three seasons. Taillon and Musgrove were traded. The Pirates opted to not tender Williams or Archer a contract.
Mitch Keller is feeling their absence in Pirate City.
"It's definitely different here without all those guys,” he said in a Zoom call Wednesday. “They were four of our five starters, and now they're all gone. They're all guys I looked up to and taught me how to be a big leaguer, how to handle myself, how to be a pro. Just kind of showed me the ropes when I came up and even last year. It's definitely different seeing those guys with different teams now.”
The Pirates have pitchers who could make up their lost innings. Veteran lefty Tyler Anderson was recently brought in on a one-year deal. Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl have spots in the rotation, rather than having to fight for one. Miguel Yajure, JT Brubaker, Wil Crowe and Cody Ponce all made their Major League debuts in 2020 and figure to be in the mix for the fifth starter spot. Those who lose out should still see time in the Majors this year.
Then there is Keller, who is gearing up for his first full 162-game season in the Majors. Last spring training, he was focusing on just making the team. This time around, it looks like he is going to be in the frontend of the Pirates’ rotation.
But the Pirates also lost clubhouse leaders with the departure of those four starters. That is going to be more difficult to replace.
Keller might step up there, too. He is one of the players the Pirates are hoping to build around during their rebuild, and he’s been approached by coaching about being one of those focal players.
“They're really excited to see me grow, and they let me know that they're going to push me to grow even farther, because they know the capabilities that I have, and that's exciting for me to hear that,” Keller said. “[They] want me to be a leader, in a way, even though I'm still really young and haven't had that many years in the big leagues. But they do want me to step into that leader role and be that kind of guy that people look up to and we build around."
Keller seems up for the task, saying it gives him confidence to know that there are going to be people watching him, and looking up to him, this year. So he wants to follow the example he saw from the veterans when he was in his first Major League spring trainings.
"Just working my ass off every day and going out there and doing things the right way, just like Jamo, Joe and Trevor and all those guys have taught me along the way here,” Keller said. “Just fall into their footsteps… Just continuing that and bringing a positive attitude every single day, especially here in spring. I know we have a lot of new guys in spring, so just showing them the ropes and being positive about everything."
That doesn’t mean he’s going to become a rah-rah guy, giving speeches in the middle of the clubhouse before games. Keller’s a soft-spoken guy who is more reserved than one would expect someone with a 95 mph fastball and wicked curve would ever be. He doesn’t talk just so he can hear his own voice. He doesn't talk that much in general. Steven Brault joked that he doesn’t know if he’s heard Keller speak more than 12 words at a time.
Joking aside, Brault still sees the potential for Keller assuming more of a leadership role, especially with how this team is constructed.
“He's just a more of quiet guy,” Brault said right after. “I think it's that's going to be how it is. The younger guys are now the older guys in this clubhouse. That's just how it is. That's how it works. Mitch is now all of a sudden one of the older people on the team. He's like, what, 24 or 25?”
To answer the question, he's 24 now, and will turn 25 three days after opening day. He's made only 16 Major League starts so far in his career, too.
This is a team with a lot of players who fall in that 24–26-year-old range. Keller, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds, Cole Tucker. And that’s not to say anything about the prospects in camp, like Quinn Priester, Nick Gonzales and Liover Peguero.
Ben Cherington said recently that he hoped some of those young players on the roster would eventually become leaders and faces of the franchise. Derek Shelton said he isn’t going to force one player or group of players to specifically step up in that role, because then it isn’t genuine. It’s something the team, and the individual, have to decide.
“The leadership thing will be something that if he wants to take, or the club kind of anoints him to that, that'll happen organically over time,” Shelton said. “… "I think players anoint clubhouse leaders. Guys that openly state, 'hey, I want to be a leader,' if you don't live the way you should live and make the right decisions and do the right things in the clubhouse, people aren't going to follow you.”
It’ll take time. That is the recurring theme for the 2021 Pirates. It most likely will be for the 2022 Pirates, too.
Keller is one of a handful of build blocks already in the Majors, with most of the other ones being a couple years away. It’s the reason why the Pirates traded away most of their best players this offseason. They needed to add more talented players into the system, but it will take a couple years for them to develop.
Keller says it will be worth the wait.
“I know Pittsburgh fans might think that we're trading everyone away, but I think it's pretty exciting what we've got going on here,” Keller said. “We're excited for this journey and to bring this back to a winning ball club again."