LAS VEGAS \u2014 Brad Keller, who revived his career last season out of the Cubs bullpen, is receiving inquiries this offseason as both a starter and reliever.<\/p>\n
In his first three seasons (2018-20), Keller had a 3.50 ERA in 78 games, including 57 starts. But in 88 games (59 starts) from 2021-24, Keller struggled to a 5.18 ERA.<\/p>\n
The righty signed a minor league contract with the Cubs prior to the 2025 season and in 68 games (one as an opener) and was terrific with a 2.07 ERA, among the majors\u2019 best ground-ball percentages (55.5), a .182 average against and a 27.2 strikeout percentage. With distance from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome after the 2023 season, and being used strictly in short bursts, Keller\u2019s fastball average spiked more than 3 mph to 97.2, and he broadened the use of a very effective sinker and sweeper.<\/p>\n
Keller is still just 30 and there are teams curious if the improved arsenal can not translate back to being a starter. In recent years, pitchers such as Clay Holmes, Michael King, Reynaldo Lopez and Seth Lugo have successfully returned from the pen to starting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Brad Keller, who revived his career last season out of the Cubs bullpen, is receiving…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":377093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1271,2382,1287,1266,71333,179519,1305,2228,62,2632,2225,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-377092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago-cubs","9":"tag-houston-astros","10":"tag-minnesota-twins","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-free-agency","13":"tag-mlb-hot-stove","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-columnists","18":"tag-sports-plus","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115545181175678243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}