Despite weeks of rumors, it looks as though the Pirates won’t be trading Mitch Keller before tomorrow’s trade deadline, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes. It would take “a dramatic shift” in the team’s thinking for Keller to be moved at this point.
Several contenders (including the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, and Cubs) were publicly linked to Keller in recent days, yet it appears as though none of these suitors or others were able to meet what was known to be a very high asking price for the right-hander’s services. One rival executive told Rosenthal that it didn’t seem like the Pirates were willing to explore a Keller deal too deeply, and thus ceased talks.
This stance from the Bucs front office tracks with the most recent reporting on Keller, as Rosenthal and Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette each wrote within the last few days that the Pirates were becoming increasingly disinclined to trade the starter. Pirates GM Ben Cherington told Hiles and other reporters last weekend that the team valued Keller’s “leadership” and “proven performance.”
“If we’re going to be better in 2026, we need more of that, not less. We would only contemplate giving up something that’s seemingly more proven if we really believe that they give us a better chance to be better by next year,” Cherington said.
More to come…