As injuries mount to the pitching staff, Neal Huntington on Sunday took the opportunity to pump the brakes on Mitch Keller seeing an MLB field anytime soon. Citing the organization is already out of their comfort zone with Cole Tucker and Bryan Reynolds, Huntington said Keller is in the middle of the process of adding slider/cutter to his arsenal that according to Huntington makes no sense to bring Keller to the Majors just yet.
“With Reynolds and Tucker up here, we’re out of comfort zone enough with guys without a ton of Triple-A experience. The addition of a slider is going to cause us to be a bit more patient, to let him lock this in and utilize it as a weapon,” said Huntington. It would be like bringing a hitter up when he’s in the middle of a mechanical change.”
Keller 3-0 with a 3.48 ERA this season, has struck out 24 with only four walks over his last 17 innings.