The Red Sox have re-signed right-hander Brad Keller to a minor league deal, per Chris Hatfield of SoxProspects.com on X. The veteran elected free agency earlier today but has quickly returned to Boston on a non-roster pact.
Keller, 29, is a veteran with more than five years of service time. That gives him the right to reject optional assignments to the minor leagues. Earlier in the year, he did consent to be optioned by Boston, getting recalled a few days ago. The Sox optioned him a second time but he decided to exercise his right to explore the open market. It seems he didn’t find much to his liking and quickly reunited with the Sox on this minor league deal.
The righty had a nice run with the Royals earlier in his career but he has hit a few bumps in more recent seasons. In the 2018-2020 seasons, Keller logged 360 1/3 innings with Kansas City, allowing 3.50 earned runs per nine in that stretch. His 16.8% strikeout rate was below par but his 9.1% walk rate was around average and his 52.1% ground ball rate was quite strong.
But his ERA crept north of 5.00 in both 2021 and 2022. Last year, he was only able to make 11 appearances before requiring surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome. This year, he has split his time between the White Sox and the Red Sox, tossing 37 1/3 innings with a 5.30 ERA, 17.8% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 49.6% ground ball rate.
The Sox bolstered their rotation prior to the deadline by acquiring James Paxton from the Dodgers but he recently suffered a torn calf after just three appearances with Boston. Cooper Criswell is currently on the injured list with COVID but the club is planning on slotting him into the rotation when he’s healthy. Whenever that happens, he’ll join Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta and Kutter Crawford.
The club has Quinn Priester on the 40-man roster as depth but he has allowed 11 earned runs in 6 1/3 Triple-A innings since being acquired from the Pirates. Wikelman Gonzalez is also on the 40-man but he has a 5.93 ERA at Double-A this year and would have to skip Triple-A completely to help the big league club at this point. The club has Naoyuki Uwasawa and Jason Alexander on hand as non-roster depth but Keller has far more major league experience than those two and could be ahead of them in line to get the call whenever a fresh arm is needed next.
Solid. Just use sparingly and he’ll be fine.
That’s pretty much every pitcher in our bullpen outside of maybe Jansen
Cora loves Cam “Loser” Booser
Ha! Oh, a rhyming insult! How fun!
hayzee – Yes, as long as Chad uses him only when the WooSox are up more than 8 runs or down more than 5 runs, he’ll be fine and he won’t contribute to very many WooSox losses.
Kinda sad Keller thought another team might have an interest in putting him on an MLB roster.
30 out of 30 teams have spoken, he’s not an MLB pitcher.
Normally you’d say 5.xx era, not good, but for a TOS guy, that’s fairly impressive considering usually it’s a death knell to pitchers. I’m surprised he has managed to throw as well as he has since the operation to be honest. Roughly the same results as he was getting before the procedure
Ah, here we go again—another washed-up pitcher bouncing around on minor league deals. Back in my day, teams didn’t waste time on guys with ERAs over 5.00! If you couldn’t hack it, you were done. Now they just keep recycling these guys, hoping for a miracle. And what’s with all these injuries? Pitchers used to throw complete games, not land on the IL every other week. This game has gone soft!
They’re already going to AAA. Where are you expecting to find these replacement pitchers? It’s a MLB wide issue with pitching injuries and guys who replace them are underperforming. The pipeline is Tapped Out.
@GaryWarriorsRedSoxx
“Tapped out? More like tapped into a never-ending supply of mediocrity! Back in my day, we didn’t need a deep pipeline because the guys who made it to the big leagues actually earned their spot and could stay healthy. Maybe if they didn’t baby these pitchers so much, they’d toughen up and throw more than five innings without breaking down!”
Old York, virtually every rule change that baseball has made since the 1960’s has been anti-pitcher. Lower the mound, make the plate thinner, make the strike zone shorter, have a Designated Hitter, allow pervasive PED use, shorten fences, artificial turf, juiced baseballs, pitch clock, etc.
@whyhayzee
And yet, still the batters are abysmal at hitting in today’s environment. The BA & OBP of the past few years is similar to that of some years in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Clearly, none of that has improved the offense. We’re in a deadball era of baseball right now.
hayzee – Expanding the roster to allow for 13 pitchers on each team is a pro-pitcher rule change. It allows pitchers to throw max velo all the time.
Allowing pitchers to intentionally walk batters without throwing 4 pitches is a pro-pitcher rule change.
The implementation of PitchCom is a pro-pitcher rule change.
Banning the sliding into 2B to break up doubleplays without the runner going toward the base is a pro-pitcher rule.
Pretty impressive that you were around for the late 1800s and still find time to post here. Were you one of those turn of the century hipsters with a handlebar mustache, oversize bicycle, feats of strength and Jules Verne steam punk, all fashioned unironically?
@Dumpster Divin Theo
The 1800s were a great period in America’s history. Everything has gone down hill since then… I felt more free and independent back then.
Right? Everything cycles back eventually. Fire up that cotton gin
Gary – What you just described is kinda like using your right leg to kick your left leg, and then complaining about the pain in your left leg.
The constant recycling of crap pitchers is due to these self-inflicted reasons:
1) Cheap owners refusing to pay for pitching depth
2) Dumb management refusing to sign/draft pitching prospects
3) Dumb management acquiring/signing pitchers with existing health concerns
4) Dumb management insisting on 13-man pitching staffs
5) Dumb management requiring pitchers to throw at maximum velocity all the time
6) Dumb management insisting on pulling pitchers prematurely because of their obsession with matchups and because of the aforementioned constant max velo mentality.
And BTW with far more international players becoming MLB players than ever before, it’s kinda comical to say any team has run out of quality pitcher sources.
Yes I think you’re right Fever, it’s the max velocity mentality that is screwing things up the last 30 years or so. 40 years?
Major league pitchers don’t pitch anymore. They throw. And it starts when they’re young.
We see the reports.., oh his fastball is only 91, his Prospect status can’t be that good.
Not sure if this will be fixed but we need some Greg maddox’s to come up and Dazzle the scouts with skills instead of the exhaustible resource of power.
Gary – Only 14 years, it’s been pinpointed to Chapman’s breaking of the 105 MPH barrier in 2010. Not coincidentally that’s around the time when TJS spiked up.
Unfortunately the Ghost Runner and the shift banning have made it more necessary to carry flamethrowers. You don’t want a contact pitcher with the game on the line in extra innings, it’s far too easy to advance the runner on a ground ball to the right side and then bring him home on a SF. Ghost Runners scoring without the benefit of a hit.
It’s so much harder to develop the Maddux type pitcher because teams are focused more on peripherals than on results. It’s really twisted to not understand the importance of having a good balance between the two.
Just yesterday the NESN announcers were saying it’s a shame that people judge Rafaela by his analytics instead of the value he brings rotating between two of the most challenging positions in the game. And they are right, his DRS shouldn’t take away from the fact he can even play both positions. His WAR is lower than it should be for that exact reason, because he doesn’t grade well at shortstop.
Red Sox–king of the BBB pickups
let some kid do his thing. Find out what you got. Retreads don’t play into the future anyway
Blowing a 6-0 lead with bases loaded walks? Give me Brad Keller. Or stop squeezing the strike zone. Yeesh.
Oh and the dumpires make up for it by ringing up the last out on a clear ball. Robo umps. Now.
They didn’t blow a 6-0 lead
When will we start signing good pitchers? We just like to reshuffle cards and hope one wins.
And, where’s Carmine Ragusa? I miss that guy already
Reminds me of the Dan Duquette years with signings like Bret Saberhagen, Pat Rapp and Steve Avery. The “They’re bad, but maybe as a group they can win 9 games” theory.
It looks like the Red Sox plan to develop pitching more than signing older free agent pitchers or paying the huge prospect prices that teams are asking for pitchers in trades.
I get that for starters, but it’s not the same for relievers
Yeah. They will probably still sign older relievers to 1-2 year deals like Martin and Jansen. That is pretty low risk.
The problem is they switch pitchers all throughout the year in the bullpen. No consistency
The biggest reason for the switching is to try to spread the load across multiple arms. Without that switching, half of them would be burned out within a month. When Cora talks about “aggressive” bullpen management he means a lot of extra appearances, and that wears on the pen.
Thinking they are toast at this point. The next seven games could get very ugly.
Third year in a row with 78 wins
That would be disappointing, though not totally out of the question.
Can’t believe they are doing a bullpen game tonight. They don’t HAVE a bullpen at this point!
I would love to see for 2 consecutive years draft nothing but pitchers.At least 2 should make an impact i would think.
In the 2024 draft, the Red Sox drafted pitchers in 14 of 20 rounds. In the 2023 draft, the Red Sox drafted pitchers in 12 of 20 rounds. I doubt they draft only pitchers, but you never know.
Just a friendly reminder to ignore all of KD17/TF rants on prospect rankings especially if they were drafted by Bloom. If the experts don’t agree with him they aren’t’ actually experts but rank based on “politics” which is as bogus as his own evaluations.
Yikes. That’s a lot of detail
no it’s superfluous meaningless garbage. Details implies a level of factualness that isn’t there.
TF: “He (Dombrowski) also drafted Duran, Rafaela and Abreu.“
Abreu was a 2017 IFA signed by Houston. Bloom acquired him and Valdez for Christian Vazquez at the deadline in 2022. Had nothing to do with Dombrowski.
He mispelled Casas thats all dont make fun of him for typo he managed back in 1950s he knows a lot more than you
Once again you’re taking liberty with the truth. I never once said the farm under DD was terrible that’s a lie. What I did say was this is the deepest best the farm has looked in a decade and I absolutely believe that.
Your biased opinions are a joke your analysis is poor at best your clueless when it comes to the farm. Your analysis of the big three is funny. By far the fastest riser is Anthony who by the way is the youngest Red Sox player to make AAA in 46 years. I like Teel but he’s on par with Mayer since he played 176 games in Division baseball still not nearly the fastest riser not even close to Anthony.
Your biases make you incapable of even admitting when you’re wrong. You’re so ignorant about the farm you don’t even realize that Perales, Paez, and Garcia are DD guys. You should just comment on what you know not what you regurgitate from a roto site. I’m sure Paez and Garcia are going to be much better now that you’ve been educated that they were DD not Bloom.
As usual your memory is failing you. I never bashed his farm so yea when you lie I’m going to defend but maybe it’s just failing memory. I was Casas biggest fan when you thought he sucked. I always liked Duran, I did say his outfield defense was terrible and kudus to him it was and he’s put in the work to become better. I was always high on Bello in fact I was always the one saying DD didn’t leave the cupboards bare.
What I am saying is this is the best and deepest the farm has looked in a decade. That doesn’t mean DD’s farm sucked.
On Blooms regime they added to this dynamite farm:
Mayer
Anthony
Teel
Campbell
ERC
Arias
Cespedes
Bleis
Monegro
Romero
Johanfran Garcia
Dobbins
Early
Valera
Guys DD has left over still in the farm:
Castro
Perales
jhostnyxon Garcia
Guys that Breslow has brought in
Montgomery
Sandlin
Fitts
Cason
Reyes
Gonzalez
It all adds up to a very impressive farm system not to mention Yorke, who’s still raking and will be a big leaguer.
I think your idea of a successful draft and mine are two different things. An every day big league starter is a good result out of a draft pick.
It was interesting listening to Ian Cundell and Chris Hatfield talk about the big three and the comp they came up with for Mayer and that’s Bogey. Bat first shortstops who had similar numbers in the minors except Bogey did it at little younger age but I can see the similarities. I do worry about the injuries with Mayer he has been injury prone but when healthy he hits we already established this.
I think most teams would want the draft classes that the Bloom regime has had.
Anthony is going to be a true middle of the order masher who can hit 40 homers. Mayer should be an above average big league shortstop probably have a few star level years and Kyle Teel will be at least an average big league catcher that hits for a high average but with big upside if his power develops. I will say this if he can’t stick at shortstop then his value won’t be as high but still an everyday second baseman or third baseman would still be valuable.
Next years Portland rotation of:
ERC
Monegro
Paez
We should start to see them creep into potential top 100 candidates. This a really deep farm with a ton of 45 grade prospects with hair on top. Bloom did a good job with the farm, arguably the only good thing, but that’s an envious farm rivaling depth of Tampa and the Dodgers with more hair on top.
Yes because one was drafted as an 18 year old high schooler and the other played 3 years in a Division 1 college. In other words Teel already did his A level and High A level when he played 176 games in Division 1.
It’s expected that college drafted players are more advanced than High Schoolers. Kyle Teel basically started in High A and then was moved to AA in the same year drafted. High Schoolers almost always spend time in the FCL then Salem the. Greenville and so on.
In this case they have played the same number of games in Portland and now Worcester and Anthony is two years younger he’s the faster riser all things considered.
Actually troll it’s you that’s proven wrong time and time again. I forget though your a legend in your own mind you spout so much bs it’s amazing you can remember anything. You don’t watch games you form opinions based on I’m not really sure what. I don’t give a rats ass about who built this farm system but it’s r rally good and getting better all the time. You can’t admit because a guy you despise has contributed to it. If DD had created this entire you wouldn’t be able to stop talking about how good it the farm is. It doesn’t what you know and understand about farm systems in general can fit in a thimble your clueless. Go back to your fantasy sports because that’s where you live in fantasy. Your reading comprehension isn’t very good or you just flat out lie. I always say these are kids and you never know what can derail them. There are no guarantees but you can take educated guesses by numerous factors more then just looking at statistics from 18-24 year olds. I’ve tried to educate you but I know realize you are not teachable. You just continue to look at statistics and also continue to miss the bigger picture.
I also realize that Mayer could become a hall of famer and somehow you would spin it as he sucked when I said he sucked but somehow he made adjustments and now he’s good but I wasn’t wrong he sucked before. You incapable of admitting when your wrong so in your mind your always right.
Bruin1012
Your biases make you incapable of even admitting when you’re wrong. You’re so ignorant about the farm you don’t even realize that Perales, Paez, and Garcia are DD guys. You should just comment on what you know not what you regurgitate from a roto site. I’m sure Paez and Garcia are going to be much better now that you’ve been educated that they were DD not Bloom.
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You said a lot on the matter, but I must correct you…
Paez is Bloom’s project, not DD
What I see in the MILB is the development of young pitchers who are already dominating in A+ (Paez, Monegro), perhaps in a year we will see them in the Major League.
Trollfree
Look, you been proven wrong, no need to beat the dead horse. Everyone should just ignore the facts and subscribe to your BS about the farm system. hahaha right!!
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Bloom’s drafts and IFA:
2020:
N.Yorke 1st (17) 2B ETA 2024 (AAA) (Trade for Priester (SP), July 2024)
B.Jordan 3rd (89) 1B/3B ETA 2025 (AA)
Y.Monegro IFA SP ETA 2026 (A+)
2021:
M.Mayer 1st (4) SS ETA 2025 (AAA)
M.Bleis IFA OF ETA 2026 (A+)
J.Paez IFA SP ETA 2026 (A+)
E.Rodriguez IFA SP ETA 2026 (A+)
H.Dobbins 8th (226) SP ETA 2025 (AA)
L.Guerrero 17th (496) P ETA 2025 (AAA)
2022:
R.Anthony 2cth (79) OF ETA 2025 (AAA) (compensatory pick for Eovaldi)
C.Meidroth 4th (129) INF ETA 2025 (AAA)
M.Romero 1st (24) SS/2B ETA 2026 (A+)
Joh.Garcia IFA C ETA 2027 (A)
2023:
K.Teel 1st (14) C ETA 2025 (AAA)
K.Campbell 4cth (132) 2B/OF ETA 2026 (A+/AA/AAA,
compensatory pick for Bogaerts);
Y.Cespedes IFA SS ETA 2028 (A)
F.Arias IFA SS/2B ETA 2028 (A)
N.Zanettelo 2rd (50) SS ETA 2027 (A)
C.Early 5th (151) SP ETA 2026 (AA)
J.Valera IFA SP ETA 2028 (A)
This is a busy farm that will start producing fruit next season Mayer, Teel, Anthony, Campbell, Meidroth, Guerrero, Penrod, Fitts…this is a decent group with a core of Devers, Duran, Rafaela, Casas, Wong, Abreu, Hamilton, Grissom, Yoshida, Story, Houck, Bello, Crawford, Whitlock.
Paez, Monegro, Rodriguez will climb into the top 100 next season if they can avoid injury.
Paez has 60 control, the highest in the farm system of Red Sox, also has the best curveball, just needs to work on his fastball, I think he has the same potential as Bello.
And your attacks on Bruin 1012 are unfounded.
Clearly you don’t understand the current Red Sox farm system.
So… do you think Cora put the rock in front of Sale’s bike too?
Got it. You think that:
1) Cora, a non-pitcher, ordered a pitching mechanics change
2) You think Chris Sale didn’t have surgery because DD was fired and that stalled any capability to make medical decisions
I understand now, ty.
Bring him up already .He can’t do much worse than the bullpen did tonight
B dog – Before Cora signed the extension, he was managing for a contract. Now that he has the extension, he’s back to horrific pitching staff management.
Pulling Martin after just 4 pitches was absolutely inexcusable. What was the point of saving him with the short outing? Jansen will be available tonight, therefore Martin could have gone longer last night.
The way Cora manages just doesn’t work unless he’s got 8 really good relief pitchers which he obviously doesn’t. He has publicly stated he wants all his relievers available for every game because of matchups, so that’s why he pulls them so quickly. As we have seen since he signed the contract, his bullpen approach is a fatal flaw that will torpedo the team.
Fever: I totally agree. I think he likes strutting out to the mound , ( look at me I am a baseball genius). I never liked him as a player let alone a manager. Nothing for nothing this team has done better than I thought they would going into the season. Unfortunately we are stuck with Ego Alex.
B dog – Before the season I guessed around 75 wins, I will stick with that for now. The change in pitching approach definitely helped at the start of the season, but that’s in the past now. Devers seems to be hurting again, Duran showed yesterday his game has been hurt by the incident, and who knows how many more games they will get out of Tyler.
Biggest factors for me is health and strength of schedule, they’ve got a really tough schedule for the remainder of the season and based on their record against winning teams I wouldn’t be surprised if they go 12-31 the rest of the way.
Did you catch Tom Caron ripping the Sox last night? He called them out for not acquiring Eflin like the Orioles did. Good for Tom, he doesn’t criticize the team very often.
Win at all cost Cora says. I’ll only use the best. You lying f/k. As you stated you didn you your best tonight. Sox lost cause he didn’t put in the best relievers. I’m thinking watching the Sox this year Cora has lost at least 12-15 games mismanagementing the pen. He has zero clue who has it or not.
Sox – That’s why most of us know Cora is clueless, because he’s too dumb to realize if you’re gonna use 5 relievers in the same game there’s a high probability at least one of them will not have his best stuff. That’s why the best approach is to stick with relievers who are pitching well in the game rather than pulling them after 3 or less batters faced.
Red Sox bullpen has sunk to 5th-worst in MLB with a 4.36 ERA!! The only worse bullpens are the Rangers, Jays, ChiSox and Rockies!!!
The three B’s aren’t looking as impressive anymore, obviously opponents have caught on to their new approach … exactly as I suspected on Day 1 of the season. And I often wondered, why did the Giants let Bailey go? Normally teams don’t let coaches go elsewhere unless it’s a promotion, which it obviously wasn’t for Bailey.
Well tonight the Sox begin their toughest 10 game stretch of the season, all against Houston/Baltimore/Arizona. May God have mercy!
And if you use five relievers every night, that’s 50 appearances in a ten game stretch, or 6-7 appearances per reliever for ALL eight relievers. That’s the rough equivalent of throwing 100 appearances per season, and very few guys can stay healthy at 80+.
Tff – The crazy thing is Houck pitched fairly well, almost 7 innings. So Cora used 5 relievers in just 3 1/3 innings.
Red Sox are cursed. They can’t sweep series… they get so close but can only win 2 out of 3 games, no matter who the team is. Today’s loss was a huge joke
Joke isn’t the word I have for Cora not using his best pitchers in closing roll.
He’s a F/n idiot manager at best. Worse I’ve seen in Boston since Valentine
Release Garcia now. What an awful pick up.
Let – Same goes for Sims, 7.50 ERA with the Sox.
NONE of the 4 pitchers they acquired have helped.
Maybe that is because the pitchers weren’t the only issue?
Tff – Do you mean coaching staff, manager, or defense? Certainly defense could be better.
The bullpen usage over the last month is guaranteed to wear down a bullpen after a couple weeks. That’s why the bullpen was collapsing in late July, then recovered briefly with some fresh arms, and has now collapsed again. Not enough off days in the schedule to be using 4-5 guys each and every game.
The defense could also be better, but that has been an issue the whole year.
I mean it somewhat facetiously, but we miss Chase Anderson. You need guys going multiple innings to give the short relievers a breather. Anderson pitching three innings to close out a five run lead was as good as a day off.
Remember Foulke in 2004? An incredible 14 innings in the postseason, after 80+ innings in the regular season. He was never the same after that, but won a World Series for that sacrifice.
Another look at it..
The Red Sox have seen 98 relief appearances since the ASB (July 19 through August 15), just 9 of those for 2+ innings. Much of their success in the first half came from leading the majors in 2+ inning relief outings. You can get a lot more innings out of your bullpen that way, with a lot less stress on the arms. (Pretty easy for a reliever to throw 2+ innings every fourth game for 80-90 innings. Very few relievers can manage that when throwing just 1 inning at a time.)
You see a lot of people here screaming that Cora needs to use his best arms in every key situation, but the fact is that he has a lot more key situations than he has ace arms available. The key to bullpen success is to use your marginal arms in roles where they can be successful — which in most cases means fewer/longer outings.
Prior to the ASB, Horn threw three games with 2+ innings each, with 2 innings every third day like clockwork. It was going well! Since the ASB he has been used as a spot lefty, a very different role. Instead of 7 innings over 3 appearances he has 7 innings over 9 appearances. All but one of the runs he has given up since the ASB have come on either 0 days rest or in his third appearance in four days.
Horn is a marginal reliever. He isn’t an ace and doesn’t have ace stuff. But he was very effective in a periodic multi-inning role, until Cora decided that wasn’t good enough. So Cora trades what could easily have been 12+ innings of effective relief for 7 innings of horribly ineffective relief.
Like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?
Tff – Yeah multiple innings was common for closers back then. The year before, Mariano pitched 16 innings in the postseason including 3 innings in the Boone/Grady game.
I don’t know if that postseason had a permanent effect on his career, hard to believe it would but I’ll try to find something on it because I’m sure he’s been asked the question.
Not just the playoffs, but 14 IP (in high stress situations) on top of 83 IP in the regular season. Nor was it the first season in which he carried a heavy workload. He threw 105.1 innings in 1999 in relief and 91.2 innings (regular season + playoffs) in 2003.
Foulke’s career was taken down by problems with the cartilage in his left (landing) knee. That’s generally a degenerative issue caused by cumulative wear and tear, but the rate of damage increases with fatigue as there is weaker muscle support for the joint. While nobody can pinpoint a specific cause of damage, there is a near certainty that the heavy workload in 2003-2004 contributed to the surgery in 2005.
Going back to 1998, just 12 player-seasons where a full time reliever threw 100+ innings in a regular season. Scott Sullivan had 4 (!) of them. Derek Lowe in 1999 was one. That’s more or less the upper limit for endurance for a reliever, both then and now.
Trollfree
The problem isn’t picking pitchers it’s Bloom being inept at making picks. None have turned out well yet, not just the pitchers.. Granite he only picked in 2020 to 2023 so some might be on the way up the ladder but the gap happening right now is Bloom failing in another aspect of his job.
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The problem is that you don’t understand what prospects’ ETA is.
Because the arrival of Bloom’s prospects begins in 2025 and beyond, but you either don’t know how to read or are deliberately ignoring this fact.
According to the estimated time of arrival, the main prospects move according to schedule, and some are ahead, such as Campbell.
And this is not a defense of Bloom, but a statement of facts.