Top Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Mitch Keller will make his major league debut Monday, according to a report from MLB.com.
Keller will start one of the Pirates’ two games that day in Cincinnati against the Reds. The Pirates have yet to announce who will start either game.
Top #pirates prospect @mkeller11 will make his Major League debut by starting one of the @pirates two games against the @reds in Cincy on Monday.
— Jonathan Mayo (@JonathanMayo) May 26, 2019
Keller, 23, was a second-round pick of the Pirates in 2014 and has been part of the organization’s top prospects lists seemingly ever since. He entered 2019 as No. 1 in the organization by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline and Nos. 26 and 19 in all of baseball by Baseball America and MLB respectively.
Keller was scheduled to start Sunday for Triple-A Indianapolis, but he was scratched from that outing. He has a 3.45 ERA and 1.43 WHIP with 56 strikeouts and 20 walks in 47 innings over nine Triple-A starts this season.
Opinion from @KGorman_Trib | It’s time for @mkeller11 to make his major league debut. https://t.co/BwgQCIhhP7
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) May 21, 2019
Although Keller had sub-3.00 ERAs every season at the Single-A and Double-A levels, he has a 4.17 ERA in 19 Triple-A starts over the past 11 months.
Two Pirates starters are on the injured list, and Steven Brault and Nick Kingham struggled as replacements. The Pirates used an “opener” three times over a recent week’s span. They called up Rookie Davis and Dodyvas Neverauskas on Saturday to help plug holes in the bullpen.
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