Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly had seen enough of starting pitcher Mitch Keller.
Can you blame him?
Coming into Game 3 of their home series against the Atlanta Braves, Keller was 1-4 with an ERA of 7.50 in his seven starts since May 30.
So when Keller opened up Thursday afternoon’s rubber match by laboring through three innings with three runs allowed, four hits, two walks and a homer, Kelly pulled him before the fourth inning even began.
“I was kind of surprised, but it’s not my call,” Keller said.
Surprised? Keller shouldn’t be.
He had one quality start since May 24. His most solid trait was being an innings-eater. But the more innings he has been eating, the more bloated his ERA was getting. By the time Thursday’s third inning had ended, it was up to 5.14.
Kelly couldn’t watch it anymore.
“We were thinking about (leaving Keller in for the fourth inning),” Kelly said. “But it felt like the best chance for us to win, coming back toward the top of the order, was to go with Cam (Sanders). It didn’t work out.”
Unfortunately, that was the problem. If turning to Cam Sanders (8.68 ERA) in the fourth inning is your best chance to win, I don’t like your chances.
I don’t like your chances if you are turning to anyone in that Pirates bullpen that early.
That has been the problem for Kelly all year. Whenever he has to take the ball from a struggling starter, he has to give it to one of his even worse relief pitchers.
In this case, it was Sanders. He couldn’t even make it out of his first inning of duty, giving up three walks, two hits and three earned runs in just ⅔ of an inning.
Trailing 6-5 in the ninth, Kelly would quizzically give the rudder to Dennis Santana. He promptly steered the Gateway Clipper right into a bridge abutment, hemorrhaging four earned runs over one inning, allowing Atlanta all the cushion they would need for a 10-5 win.
The defeat dropped the Pirates to 47-47, heading into a difficult three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers to conclude the first half of their season.
“We need Santana to hold the game there,” Kelly said.
“Santana has been throwing the ball better. I know that he gave up a home run (Wednesday) night. We need other guys too to step up and get some outs. We can’t continue to go to the same guys the whole time.”
Therein lies Kelly’s dilemma with Keller.
The 30-year-old’s best attribute is now his biggest problem. Kelly and general manager Ben Cherington are enamored of his “every fifth day” durability and deep-game profile. But the more often they start him and the longer they leave him in games, the worse it gets.
Suddenly, turning to members of the Pirates’ tattered bullpen is looking like a better option than going with a guy who was supposed to be — at worst — the club’s No. 3 starter.
Now Kelly can’t wait until the fourth inning to rip the ball out of his hands.
Not only that, but he can’t put Keller in the bullpen because he rarely starts fast enough, as evidenced by Thursday’s first-inning homer from Matt Olson.
Matt Olson crushes home run No. 25 ???? pic.twitter.com/HNmrU1kcxL
— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2026
Not to mention, Keller has barely ever pitched in relief. Of Keller’s 183 Major League appearances, 181 of them have been starts.
Not to mention, he’s got $48.8 million remaining on his contract if Cherington tries to trade him.
Not to mention, Keller usually gets worse as the season moves beyond the All-Star break.
Aside from that, Keller is a wonderfully valuable asset for the club right now, isn’t he?
Keller claims he is healthy, but wants to use the All-Star break as a reset opportunity because he thinks there might be something off in his mechanics.
“I’ve got three extra days up until the All-Star break. I think it’d be a good time just to be able to really hone in on some mechanical things, some pitching things that I can get better at for the second half,” Keller said. “Just off a little bit.”
A bit? A 5.14 ERA is “a bit?”
I somehow think this is going to be a bigger fix than what one three-day vacation can provide.
Not just for Keller’s mechanics, but for Cherington’s plan to rebuild the bullpen, and for Kelly’s approach to work around it until Cherington makes it better.
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LISTEN: Tim Benz and Kevin Gorman discuss Mitch Keller’s woes and Pirates bullpen problems.
