BCB After Dark: The Cubs have talked about Mitch Keller

It’s Wednesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the swinging-est spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the heat and cool off with us. The music and conversation may be hot, but the air conditioning is cool. We still have a few tables available. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

The Cubs crushed the Cardinals tonight, 8-0, snapping the three-game losing streak. Matthew Boyd has been a savior this year. Just a terrific signing for the front office this past winter. The offense came alive and Ian Happ lined the first pitch of the game into the seats. The Cubs get Shōta Imanaga back tomorrow. Hopefully, the worst is behind us.

Last night I asked you about your interest in the Cubs trading for Royals right-hander Seth Lugo. Fifty-seven percent of you were excited by the idea (at least enough to give it a “yay!”) and 34 percent were kind of ambivalent to the idea. Only nine percent of you don’t like the possible move.

Here’s the part where we talk movies and listen to tunes. You can skip that part if you want. Your loss.

Tonight we’re featuring a concert by legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins in Norway in 1974. Joining Rollins onstage are Rufus Harley on (soprano?) sax and bagpipes, Yoshiaki Masuo on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass and David Lee on drums.

They play four songs here.

I already have tickets to see F1: the movie this weekend in IMAX.

Am I going to see it because I’m a big fan of summer action blockbusters? No, not really. I hardly ever go to see one them. Sometimes I catch one months later at home. Usually I won’t.

Am I going because I’m a big fan of star Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski? I think Pitt is an old-fashioned movie star in the best sense of the word, but I’m not someone who goes out of his way to see his films. I’ll watch them if they interest me. He alone won’t draw me in. As far as Kosinski goes, I never even got around to seeing Top Gun: Maverick.

Am I going to sit in an air-conditioned room for three hours and get out of the heat? Well, yes, but I could go see any film to do that.

Am I going to see F1 because I like to watch cool cars going “vroom, vroom” really fast around a track and making a lot of noise? Ding, ding, ding! That’s the right answer!

I’m not really a Formula One fan and I couldn’t name most of the drivers after the big names of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. I much prefer IndyCar, where the lead actually changes hands from time to time, although Alex Palou is kind of putting that statement to the test this year. (Indy racing also tends to be on TV at more convenient times.) But I do watch Formula One from time to time just to watch the cars go really fast and make a lot of noise.

So I’m approaching this film as more of a theme park ride than an actual movie and to be sure, my wife is insisting that I take dramamine before we go. And from the early reviews, that’s pretty much the way to look at F1. The plot is a standard sports movie trope of a grizzled old veteran tutoring a young hot shot. But the reviews of the actual car racing parts are rapturous, so far.

So tonight’s question for you is do you want me offering my thoughts on F1 on Monday? I normally avoid new films and heck, even films from the “internet age” because I figure that there are lots of other people writing about those movies and some of them even know what they’re talking about. But perhaps some of you have come to trust my judgement and would like my thoughts on the movie.

I’m not going to put up a poll because I’m intimidated by how many of you would vote “Who cares? I come here for Cubs baseball.” But if you think you’d like to read what I have to say about F1 next week, let me know in the comments.

Also, if you’re planning to see the film or are a Formula One fan yourself, let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you are a Formula One fan, let us know what I need to know before seeing the movie.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

Bob Nightengale dropped this bombshell earlier today about the Cubs and two Pirates:

The Chicago Cubs, who have dominated the NL Central but have seen their lead getting a little too close for comfort, are one of the teams who would love to get their hands on [Mitch] Keller and [David] Bednar.

Now normally the first impulse on something like this is to say “Nightengale” and dismiss it. But then we got confirmation:

Let’s not talk about David Bednar for the moment. Bednar had a bad 2024 season and was so bad early in 2025 that the Pirates sent him down to Triple-A. But whatever was wrong with Bednar got fixed. Since his return to the majors, Bednar has a 2.03 ERA and 10 saves. He’s also under team control for 2026, so while he’s due a big arbitration award, he’s not going to be super-expensive. Every playoff contender would love to get Bednar. The Cubs would love to get Bednar.

My first reaction to this is that I have enough trouble not calling Brad Keller “Mitch” that the idea of having them both on the Cubs would drive me crazy. It’s a bad idea. (By the way, Brad and Mitch are not related.)

But seriously, right-hander Mitch Keller comes with a lot of pluses and minuses. Overall, Mitch Keller is not the kind of pitcher you’d feel confident with starting game one of a playoff series. But he is the kind of pitcher who is better than Colin Rea or Jordan Wicks or whomever is filling out the back of the Cubs rotation. As a minor leaguer, Keller was a top prospect with high expectations, but he’s settled down into being a kind of average major league starter. He made the All-Star Game in 2023, but that’s as much a function of the Pirates needing an All-Star than anything else. To be fair, however, Keller did have a 2.90 ERA before the break that year. His second half was not anywhere near as good with an ERA of 5.35.

This year, Keller is his same decent self. His record is 1-10, but that’s more poor run support than anything else. His ERA is 4.02, which translates to a 104 ERA+. That’s just a little above the 100 average.

The underlying figures say that Keller is a bit better than those numbers indicate. Not a lot better, but somewhat. He’s probably been hurt by the Pirates defense and would do better with the Cubs defense behind him.

Keller has lost about half a mile per hour on his fastball this year and he’s missing fewer bats. However, he’s also throwing more strikes, which is cutting down his walk rate. In the end, it probably evens out. His drop in velocity is not high enough to be overly concerned about.

As mentioned earlier, Keller was considered a top prospect before his career with the Pirates. Pittsburgh has a bad reputation for developing pitchers and their prospects have a tendency to underwhelm in the majors. (Paul Skenes was just drafted that great. I don’t think the Pirates did anything other than just promote him.) So the Cubs could see something in Keller that they could “fix” and turn him into something better. I wouldn’t expect him to become a Cy Young Award candidate suddenly, but maybe the Cubs think he can be an “above average” starter rather than a thoroughly average one. Certainly Matthew Boyd is an example of a pitcher who went through years of mediocrity until he fixed something (and got healthy) and became a very strong starting pitcher.

The biggest issue with Keller is his contract. Before last season, in the wake of his All-Star Game appearance in 2023, the notoriously-cheap Pirates handed Keller a five-year, $77 million contract extension. Good for the Pirates for opening their wallets for once, but Keller seemed like an odd choice to hand out a big deal to. That’s more than what the Cubs gave to former Pirate Jameson Taillon the year before.

That contract is both good news and bad news. It’s bad news because any team that trades for Keller is going to be on the hook for 3 1⁄2 years and around $60 million. The good news is that the Pirates would likely be willing to give up Keller for essentially nothing to anyone willing to eat the contract. Or they might be willing to eat a bunch of the contract for some mid-level prospects.

Because of that, the Cubs could add Keller and a second starter at the deadline. Prospect-wise, Keller won’t cost enough in prospects that it would prevent the Cubs from trading for someone like Sandy Alcantara that would require a large haul of talent. However, adding his salary could end up squeezing out other players due to payroll limitations, if the Pirates don’t pay a huge chunk of his salary.

One other tantalizing possibility is that the Pirates might be willing to trade David Bednar to anyone willing to eat Keller’s contract. Would you be willing to pay full retail for Mitch Keller if it meant getting David Bednar as a throw-in on the deal?

I don’t think this question is a simple yay/nay one, so I’m going to phrase the answers somewhat differently. My apologies if I don’t capture your feelings.

Thanks so much for stopping by tonight and all week. Please get home safely. We can call you a ride if necessary. Make sure you have all your belongings. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.

BCB After Dark: The Cubs have talked about Mitch Keller

Tags: