Pittsburgh's Keller ascends to Indianapolis

There wasn't much left for Mitch Keller to prove at Double-A Altoona. His next test will determine how much he has left to prove in the Minor Leagues.
The Pirates promoted their top prospect to Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday after a dominant June in which Keller went 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA and .131 batting average against over 26 innings. The right-hander came off the best regular-season start of his career against Harrisburg on Monday, when he held the Senators to one hit and two walks over a season-high eight innings while maintaining his mid-90s velocity throughout the 92-pitch outing.

Keller left the Curve as the Eastern League's leader with nine wins and ranking second in innings pitched (86), fifth in ERA (2.72), seventh in WHIP (1.12) and ninth in strikeouts (76). The midseason promotion marked the third in as many seasons for the 2014 second-round pick.
"To see him grow and develop the way he has, our staff's done a great job and Mitch deserves a ton of credit too," Pirates GM Neal Huntington told MLB.com on Sunday. "We've still got some growth to go, but we believe he can be a really good Major League starting pitcher."

The bump in level also represented the earliest Keller has been sent up the ladder. He was promoted from Class A West Virginia to Class A Advanced Bradenton in August 2016 and from Bradenton to Altoona in August 2017 before getting the call to Indy after 20 starts with the Curve.
After walking at least two batters in each of his first eight starts in 2018, Keller hasn't walked more than two batters in three of his last six outings. Improving his already above-average control might go a long way in enabling the Iowa native to force his way to PNC Park by season's end, although Pittsburgh has moved him methodically through the system. To this point, Keller has yet to log fewer than 16 starts at any full-season level.