Pirates Keep Starting Pitcher Past Trade Deadline

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates made many moves ahead of the MLB trade deadline, but they also didn't move one of their best pitchers.

Right-handed starting pitcher Mitch Keller is still with the Pirates following the trade deadline on July 31 and will remain with them the rest of the 2025 season.

Keller was one of the top starting pitcher talents that teams were targeting in a trade, but no one landed a deal for him.

He has had a strong season in 2025, despite a 4-10 record in 22 starts, as he has 15 quality starts, tied for the second-most in the MLB. A quality start is when a starting pitcher throws six innings and allows three runs or fewer.

Keller has a 3.69 ERA over 127.0 innings pitched, 100 strikeouts to 33 walks, a .243 opposing batting average, a 1.20 WHIP and his innings pitched rank tied for 19th most in the MLB.

Keller signed a five-year, $77 million contract on Feb. 22, 2024 and currently makes $15,411,500 in 2025, the most a Pirates player is earning this season on their payroll. He is only one of two players making more than $10 million this season, along with outfielder Bryan Reynolds at $12,250,000.

His salary increases $1.5 million each year over the next two seasons, to $16,911,000 in 2026 and then $18,411,000 in 2027, then an increase of $2 million in 2028 to $20,411,000.

Keller received trade interest from many teams, including the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.

While older reports showed the Pirates would move Keller, reports closer to the deadline indicated the Pirates weren't sure on moving him and then that they were highly unlikely moving Keller.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spoke to the media following the end of the trade deadline and why they kept Keller.

Cherington said they listened on what they were offered for their veteran starter, but that they didn't find what they wanted in return, which would make them better without Keller.

He also thinks Keller can get better through his time in Pittsburgh and that he's happy Keller is still around with the team.

"We didn't use that term 'off the table.' I think our job was to listen and learn about how teams were thinking about our players and what they were trying to do."

"In Mitch's case specifically, the way I felt and feel is that Mitch is both unusual and hard to find in the sense of how reliable he's been, the amount of innings he pitches and the amount of starts and innings he's taken over the last three years is certainly amongst the top in baseball. That's not an easy thing to find. He's been a very effective pitcher and I think he can be even better."

"The combination of all that was going to make it a high bar to cross. We were not motivated or anxious to trade him, we needed to listen. In the end, it was clear to us as we got into today, and probably even late last night, that there just wasn't going to be anything out there that fit the goals that would have actually made us better than Mitch Keller himself. "

"Mitch is really important and I never thought it was all that likely. I felt like we had to listen, and I explained that to Mitch. I'm not surprised that he's a Pirate and I'm very happy he's a Pirate."