Tigers Have Shown Interest In Brad Keller As Starter

The Tigers are among the teams that have expressed interest in free agent righty Brad Keller as a starting pitcher, Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press wrote this afternoon. That report preceded Detroit’s agreement with swingman Drew Anderson, but it’s unlikely a one-year deal with a pitcher who hasn’t appeared in MLB since 2021 would take them out of the mix for starting pitching.

Keller is coming off a breakout year working out of the Cubs bullpen. The 30-year-old righty fired 69 2/3 innings of 2.07 ERA ball. He emerged as Craig Counsell’s most trusted leverage arm by the end of the season. Keller recorded 25 holds and a trio of saves while relinquishing just three leads all year. He was fantastic in the second half, allowing one run while striking out 35 hitters across 27 2/3 frames. He picked up two more saves and a hold while tossing 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the playoffs.

While the underlying metrics weren’t quite so dominant, Keller posted solid peripherals across the board. He punched out 27.2% of opponents against a manageable 8% walk rate. Keller got ground-balls at a 56.5% clip, the 10th-highest rate among relievers with 50+ innings. The only slight area of concern was a modest 10.8% swinging strike rate that checked in a little below the 11.5% league average.

Keller’s performance was obviously going to have plenty of teams interested in him as a reliever. As we noted on our writeup of the Top 50 Free Agents, it made sense that some clubs would view him as a rotation conversion candidate. Keller has plenty of starting experience. He was a starter for most of his six seasons as a member of the Royals. The 6’5″ righty found some early-career success as a grounder specialist at the back of the K.C. rotation.

His numbers tanked between 2021-23, and he underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome before the ’24 campaign. Keller didn’t find much success in limited MLB looks with the White Sox and Red Sox that year. He was forced to settle for a minor league contract with the Cubs last winter. Keller looked rejuvenated in a relief role, earning a roster spot out of camp and pitching his way to the top of the bullpen hierarchy before long.

While the thoracic outlet surgery could give some clubs trepidation, there’s reason for optimism if he does return to starting. He has continued to use a five-pitch mix out of the bullpen. He had no issues handling left-handed hitters this year, holding them to a .223/.293/.277 slash with a 26% strikeout rate over 123 plate appearances. Keller doesn’t have pristine command but has shown good enough control to work into the middle innings as a starter. While he obviously wouldn’t maintain this past season’s 97.2 MPH average fastball velocity in longer stints, it’s not unreasonable to imagine him sitting 94-95 over five-plus innings.

MLBTR predicted Keller for a three-year, $36MM contract. That baked in the possibility that he could sign somewhere as a starter. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote this morning that Keller indeed seems on track to pull a three-year deal. The Tigers have yet to sign a free agent for more than two seasons under fourth-year president of baseball operations Scott Harris.

Keller would nevertheless fit their general operating procedure of targeting the middle tiers of free agency. Detroit has also been linked to Michael King and Zac Gallen and have been more loosely floated as a potential Ranger Suárez suitor. They also reportedly kicked the tires on a reliever to starter move with Ryan Helsley, but he’s off the board on a two-year deal to close for the Orioles.

The rotation currently lines up with Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize in the top four spots. Rookie Troy Melton is probably the in-house favorite for the fifth starter role. He’d compete with Anderson, Keider Montero and Sawyer Gipson-Long for that job. They can certainly use another starter, and Keller would have the fallback to pitch in high-leverage relief if he doesn’t win a rotation spot out of camp.