The Pittsburgh Pirates find themselves in one of the more interesting positions in Major League Baseball this offseason, with a chance to land some very good players if they do what's necessary.
At the same time, the Pirates face other tough decisions with some of the players on their current roster. Pittsburgh has talent on both sides of the baseball, though there's an argument that some of those guys need to be traded.
One player in particular, Mitch Keller, has proven throughout much of his career that he can be a very good arm, despite the trade rumors he's dealt with.
Keller arguably had his worst season yet for the Pirates in 2026, posting a 5.29 ERA, the worst of his career outside of 2021, and striking out just 89 hitters in 115.2 innings.
Keller has always had elite strikeout stuff, but in 2023 he was one of the best in baseball, striking out 210 hitters in 194.1 innings.
As for how the Pirates can decide on Keller, he's not a free agent until 2029 and is on a five-year, $77 million deal. That isn't exactly team-friendly, and it's another problem the organization will likely face.
To improve that, the Pirates have a couple of options. None of them are exactly perfect, but some are better than others.
“The first option is to eat a significant portion of Keller’s remaining salary. The second is to take on a bad contract in return. The third is to attach a prospect or another asset to Keller (like Francisco Liriano in 2016) to help facilitate a deal.
“None of the three options are ideal. Bob Nutting won’t be thrilled about paying a player to play for another team. Taking on a bad contract in return is essentially a zero-sum game. Parting with a notable asset to entice a team could easily backfire,” Danny Demilio wrote.
The worst outcome would be for the Pirates to move on from Keller and eat the remainder of his salary. That doesn't seem like something the front office and ownership would be willing to do, though again, anything is possible in Major League Baseball.
The best outcome would be for a team around the league to think they can figure him out, which might be more likely than some believe.
Keller might not have done what he needed to do over the past couple of seasons, but he's still a respectable arm, so the Pirates will have to hope a team gets desperate and is willing to take a chance on him.