The Pittsburgh Pirates placed Mitch Keller on the 60-day injured list Monday with a teres major muscle injury in his throwing arm, a move that effectively ends his season. He cannot come off the list until after the Pirates' Sept. 27 regular-season finale.
For Keller, 30, the timing lands hard. He is the Pirates' longest-tenured player, and the club signed him to a five-year, $77 million contract in February 2024 after he became a 2023 All-Star. This season, though, he has not pitched like the durable starter the Pirates had leaned on for years. In 22 starts, Keller went 6-8 with a 5.29 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP over 115 2/3 innings, striking out 89 and walking 42.
The injury removes the pitcher who has been a fixture in the rotation since his MLB debut in 2019 and who had made at least 31 appearances in each of the past four seasons. It also arrives with Keller earning just under $17 million this season, according to Spotrac, a reminder of how much the Pirates had invested in a veteran arm they expected to anchor the staff through the finish.
The club did not say how Keller sustained the injury, and that leaves the recovery path unclear. A teres major strain can range from a short shutdown to a much longer absence depending on severity, but the team has only gone as far as placing him on the 60-day injured list, which rules out any return before late September. That is why the transaction matters now: the season is essentially over for a starter who was supposed to matter in it.
In a corresponding move, the Pirates recalled left-handed reliever Brandon Eisert from Triple-A Indianapolis. Eisert was acquired from the Chicago White Sox on July 11, made seven appearances for the Pirates, and went 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA before being sent down on July 29. He has gone 2-2 with a 6.29 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 12 walks in 34 1/3 innings this year, and he now gives the Pirates another arm while they sort through a rotation gap that had already begun to widen. Carmen Mlodzinski, who made nine starts earlier this season before moving to the bullpen when Jared Jones returned from InternalBrace elbow surgery, is one possible answer.
Keller’s year never matched the weight of the contract or the reliability of his past seasons, and now the Pirates have lost him altogether. The more immediate question is not whether he returns in 2025, but who takes the next turn when Pittsburgh needs one more start and the pitcher it trusted most is no longer available.
