DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Derek Shelton approached Mitch Keller after his bullpen session Wednesday, wanting to know how he was feeling. Keller said he felt fine after his 25 pitches.
"OK, how many do you think you'll throw on the 30th?" Shelton asked.
After wondering out loud what's happening the 30th, it clicked for Keller. He is going to be the Pirates' opening day starter whenever they take on the Reds March 30 in Cincinnati.
The moment Mitch found out is everything. 🥲 pic.twitter.com/oZJgThZjP2
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 15, 2023
"It was actually pretty emotional for him," Shelton said to traveling media before the Pirates' 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark Wednesday.
"He was pretty fired up. Those are special moments. This is a kid who was a very highly touted prospect and had to grind a little bit and discovered himself. It was a cool moment. Gave him a bottle of champagne and told him and [his wife] Clancy to enjoy it."
It's the fourth time Shelton has told one of his pitchers they are the opening day starter -- Joe Musgrove, Chad Kuhl and JT Brubaker, for those of you playing at home -- and he admits it's an art he hasn't perfected yet. He actually thought he tipped his hand because he had very recently called in Keller to chat recently.
"When he sat down, I was like, ‘Aw, s---. I just had a sit-down with him," Shelton said. "He’s probably wondering, ‘Why are we talking again today?’ Because we talked about a bunch of different things."
Keller was the Pirates' top starter last year, rebounding from a slow start with better stuff to record a 3.91 ERA over 159 innings. That included using a new sinker and a new sweeping breaking ball to post a 2.71 ERA over his final 15 starts.
"I think there are a couple reasons," Shelton said when asked why Keller is getting the nod. "No. 1, what he did the last half of the year last year. He deserves it, and he’s put himself in a position. Then I think the way he came into spring training and the way he’s performed so far. He deserves it."
That's obviously only part of the story, as Keller went from a nearly flamed out top prospect to an opening day starter by working to find his fastball velocity and a sense of confidence again. He was able to build off of that this offseason, and he has struck out 13 hitters over 11 innings this spring, finding success by staying in what he calls "attack mode."
That attack mode mentality has shown up this spring, including his last start where he overcame a couple jams to toss four strong innings.
"The second inning, we’ve seen that get away from Mitch," Shelton said. "He stayed in attack mode. He got the double-play ball. Even if he doesn’t get the double-play ball, he kept coming right at you. Whereas I think he had kind of stood back and whatever the game was gonna bring to him, he took. Now, he’s taking charge. You really saw it in the third and fourth innings. That may have been the best stuff I’ve ever seen him have. He went right back out after people."
Keller was not made available after Shelton made the announcement Wednesday, but he had spoken about what getting that first start would mean to him.
"It’d be awesome, just to have that recognition," Keller said after his first spring start. "It's an honor to pitch on that day. To be one of 30 people to do it would be a huge honor to me and it'd be awesome."
It's also not lost that for a young team and a pitching staff that should feature several young starters that it's a homegrown pitcher who is leading the way.
"Everybody aspires to do that," Shelton said. "Everybody aspires to be an Opening Day starter at some point in their career, but for young guys coming up, I do think it’s something they can look and say, ‘Hey, this is a guy who came through our system.’ "
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Brubaker became the first Pirate starter to work into the fifth inning this spring, and it could be summed up as three quality innings and the two where he allowed a pair of runs (the third and the fifth). In total, he allowed those four runs over 4 1/3 innings, striking out five with four hits and a walk on his ledger.
"Have to get used to the mound getting beat up more now," Brubaker said. "There's getting some holes out there. It's just what you deal with. But no, getting up in the fifth felt good. Stretching it out a little bit. Next outing, complete five and where that should put me with one more, maybe go into the sixth. Not sure what their plans are, but it's definitely cool to have this, to be able to get up six times and complete the sixth before we head up north."
Those five strikeouts pushed his spring total to 20 over 12 1/3 innings this spring. What's interesting is that many of those strikeouts have come with the sinker on his glove side, which runs counter to how he used the pitch last year. I touched on that in Mound Visit this week, and Brubaker is planning on using the whole zone more this year.
"Just continuing to get it to that glove side, getting that shape, movement and feel for it," Brubaker said. "Definitely something that I'm going to use a lot more."
For reference, here is Brubaker's results Wednesday on a pitch chart. With the exception of the one by the left-handed batter's foot, every one of these strikeouts was on a sinker:
• Carmen Mlodzinski went 1 2/3 innings in relief of Brubaker. While the bases were clear, it's still unusual to see a starter come into a game mid=iinning, even for spring training. Might be worth monitoring if he could get a look out of the bullpen this year.
Yerry De Los Santos showed a little more velocity in his inning Wednesday than he has this year -- about 93 mph, but still down a couple ticks compared to last year -- and allowed two runs in the seventh. John O'Reilly allowed a home run in the eighth.
• Not much offense to speak of in this one, unless your name is Connor Joe or Travis Swaggerty. Both are competing for bench jobs this spring, and Swaggerty boosted his spring batting average to .400 with an RBI single while Joe went 3-for-3 with a couple of doubles.
On the flip side, Ji-Man Choi and Rodolfo Castro both struck out a couple times, lowering their spring OPS marks to .535 and .501, respectively.
• For those wondering, Bryan Reynolds is going to get a start in center field later this week. Jack Suwinski is getting most of these starts, including Wednesday, to help him get more accustomed to the position. Reynolds isn't just a left fielder moving forward.
