The Cubs have informed Brad Keller that he has made the Cubs’ roster for domestic Opening Day. Manager Craig Counsell passed the news along to Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Cubs will have to make a corresponding move to get him onto the 40-man. Also, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, Ben Brown has won the final rotation spot over Colin Rea.
Keller, 29, pitched to a 4.22 ERA in 10 2/3 innings this spring but turned heads with improved velocity and sharper breaking pitches. He’ll grab a spot in the Chicago bullpen. Given his background as a starter and his 10 2/3 innings in just six appearances, he’ll give Counsell an option who can pitch multiple innings.
Keller was a Rule 5 pick by the Royals out of the D-backs system back in 2017, and for three years he was a solid, durable member of the Kansas City rotation. His effectiveness began to wane in 2021, however, and injuries plagued him in the coming seasons. By 2023, his command had completely eroded. He walked 45 batters in 45 1/3 innings before landing on the injured list. A series of tests eventually led to a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis and season-ending surgery. He returned to the majors with the White Sox and Red Sox in 2024 but struggled in both spots.
The 25-year-old Brown came to the Cubs in the 2022 trade that shipped David Robertson to the Phillies. Brown made his big league debut last year, tossing 55 1/3 innings with a 3.58 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate, 38.7% grounder rate and 0.81 HR/9. He sits 96-97 mph with his four-seamer and couples that offering with a plus curveball. Brown has at times worked with a changeup in the minors as well but has deployed a two-pitch arsenal in the major thus far. He allowed a pair of runs in 2 2/3 innings versus the Dodgers in the Tokyo Series, but Brown also whiffed five of his 15 opponents there. Similarly, he’s allowed six runs in a small sample of eight spring frames but did so with a pristine 9-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Brown gets the nod over the veteran Rea, who’ll open the season in the bullpen after signing a one-year, $5MM deal in free agency this winter. The 34-year-old righty carries a 4.40 ERA in 292 innings for the Brewers across the past two seasons. He’s worked both as a starter and long reliever in that time. Rea may not start the year in the rotation, but it seems likely he’ll make a handful of starts as injuries and/or poor performance elsewhere in the rotation dictate the need for a fresh arm or even a more permanent replacement.
Brad Keller? Should have signed Iglasias because OMG! fits here…
Hopefully the next bit of news will be that Workman has earned a spot.
Yes. Barring a “last minute” injury, the final bench role is seemingly down to Rule 5 selection Gage Workman or out-of-options Vidal Bruján.
Workman has the higher ceiling and is a better option at the infield corners if 3B Matt Shaw struggles or 1B Michael Busch gets hurt.
And Brujan will be DFA’d. Brujan is no superstar, don’t get me wrong–but his release will nonetheless be historic: For the first time since 1953, the Cubs won’t have a single dark-skinned player on their active roster. And no, I am not a racist for noticing that; Jed Hoyer is a racist for doing that.
Really?
So Jed’s only saving grace is having a couple of “Japs” on the team and allowing Ben “Brown” to be the 5th starter?
I say, WTF and go away with such a ludicrous “observation”.
Perhaps the Cubs 6 “dark-skinned” coaches will file a complaint or walk out in protest. Yeesh…
Aaron, I am more than enough of a big boy to withstand your bullying. And yes, Hoyer is using the Asian players as a way to deflect.
You’re obsessed.
Alan, you’re a clown.
What bullying? Why start this?
Gosh, Bill, I never thought of it that way. Your impeccable logic compels me to admit that everything I have ever said here–or anywhere else–is wrong, and to withdraw it, while bowing before your obviously superior intellect.
Neither you nor any of the other bullies here have been able to answer my simple question: then why DON’T the Cubs have any dark-skinned players?
If your answer is “coincidence,” as Harry used to say, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell ya…. I
I suppose, Hector. I am a Cubs fan and I hate to see them doing wrong, and suffering on the field too, as a result of it. I will drop my obsession–gladly–the day a player with dark skin and dreads becomes a prominent member of the Cubs.
Alan, you have no idea why it’s like that. You are just making up things you want to believe. That’s why you are a clown.
This line of thinking can never lead to a good place. Then again, hiring practices have institutionalized it, so there we go.
I’m old enough to remember when I actually believed the idea was not to judge people based on race.
Me too, but where did that get you in baseball before 1948?
Agree. But pretending we don’t notice racism when it exists doesn’t advance the cause of meritocracy either. And no one can tell me there aren’t black players out there who could improve the Cubs
Miguel Amaya feels left out somehow 😒
Apparently, he’s not “dark-skinned” enough to qualify. 😒
In a word, yes. You meant to be sarcastic, but that is the crux of it. For Hoyer, it seems to be a matter of pigment, and of self-presentation: he doesn’t seem to want players on the Cubs, for more than a cup of coffee anyway, who look and act like, say Elly de la Cruz.
When he does put a such a player in a prominent position on the team, I will be relieved and delighted to admit I was wrong. I am a lifelong Cubs fan, and I’m 72, and the appearance of racism breaks my heart. I want to be wrong about this.
It is morally wrong, and it is also bad team-building–as the season ahead will, unfortunately prove.
How is Hoyer racist?
He doesn’t have any dark-skinned players on his team.
Watch the Cubs play against some of the other teams this season: it looks like the white guys against the black guys. As a Cubs fan since 1960, I am sad and embarrassed.
This is a nonsense response aimed at causing problems and drama. Color of their skin has nothing to do with their abilities as ball players. Just stop this garbage
Not saying it has anything to do with their ability as players. I’m saying that it has something to do with Hoyer’s decisions. What is YOUR explanation for why the Cubs are so white?
And no, I’m not going to stop expressing my opinion because you tell me to.
Do you take a similar tactic with the Bulls and Bears? Just curious how racist those organizations are in your quit3 distorted eyes….
The funny thing about racism is its the people that claim they aren’t racist that point out how everything and everyone else is racist.
I know that people make the point you are making a lot, and I understand the point, and I’m sure it is sometimes true, but please think for a moment: Are you saying that when we see evidence of racism, we should NEVER point it out–for fear that we will be called racist for noticing it? I know that you and the thumbs-up crowd mean well and are sincere, but can’t you see the flaws in your thinking– the odd way it turns the whistle on the whistleblower, and prohibits any analysis?
And let me ask you, then: If I’m wrong, what IS the reason that no one who looks like Elly de la Cruz or Oneil Cruz or Lawrence Butler or James Wood or Jhonkensy Noel or many others EVER has more than a cup of coffee with the Cubs? If my answer is wrong, what is your answer? Why do the Cubs, whenever they need to clear a 40-man roster spot, always think hard and decide to cut Alexander Canario? Stop being snotty for a moment, Trumper, and engage honestly with me: Why?
Because baseball rosters are built around ability, not looks. They are playing a game, not selling jeans.
If you look at Brujan’s career slash line the unknown kid is a better gamble than the guy you know that brings nothing to the table
“…many others EVER has more than a cup of coffee with the Cubs…”
You mean like when the outfield consisted of Heyward, Fowler, and Soler?
I don’t see any direct evidence of the Cubs being a racist organization, and I’m hardly someone that supports the current president
And because Canario can’t play at the major league level. That’s the obvious part. Ask the Mets…
Or like when the Cubs would play Andre Dawson, Shawon Dunston, Dwight Smith, Jerome Walton, Chico Walker, Derrick May, Derek Lee, Juan Pierre, Kenny Lofton, Luis Salazar, Juan Pierre, Aramis Ramirez, Jose Vizcaino, Jose Hernandez, Brian McRae, Lance Johnson, Henry Rodriguez, Scott Bullett, Ozzie Timmons and some guy named Sosa pretty regularly…
You are starting that crap AGAIN! We’ve been down this road a couple weeks ago and you were proven wrong.Shame on you.
Looks like Tyson Miller and Vidal Brujan may start the season on the IL. So, there’s hope for black players on the Cubs this year.
Makes sense. Rea had a horrible spring which shouldn’t be a surprise because that’s pretty much been the theme of his career up to this point.
Rea is not great, but the unanimity of the trashing of him by Cubs fans surprises me a little. He was a good player on a good team the last 2 years; I’m not sure why you all hate him so much.
@Alan53,
Informed Cubs fans don’t hate Rea. They hate what he represents: an underwhelming, cheap free agent signing by a team that has the financial wherewithal to acquire much better players.
Understood. And this season is going to be bad, particularly relative to the rather bizarrely optimistic expectations being expressed by that moron Brett Taylor and others…It might be so bad that it finally gets the odious Hoyer and his smirking lackey Hawkins fired.
@Alan53,
I’m not a fan of Hoyer/Hawkins, but the biggest problem is the ownership.
I think he’s just confusing being stupid with being a racist. But I’m not in the room either. But trading Cam Smith was a real head scratcher to me. I would have made him off limits for anyone.
Hoyer can be both.
Watch the Cubs play the Athletics next week. They are going to be killed by that guy Lawrence Butler. I predict he’ll hit 5 or 6 homers in that band box as the A’s sweep the Cubs. You might find yourself thinking, gee I wish we had a guy like Butler. Now such a guy could be black or white, of course. But the guy who is most like Butler is, well, Butler– and there was never any chance the Cubs would get him, because Hoyer doesn’t like his dark skin and dreads. That’s what I’m talking about: Hoyer limits the field of possible Cubs stars by eliminating a whole group from consideration from the start. And since that group is a racial group, then he is guilty of racism.
The Cubs were run much like this in the last awful years of the Wrigley regime. The GM was an unrepentant old racist named Bob Kennedy. The only kinds of black players who could be on the Cubs were the kind who’d bow and scrape and call you sir. It was appalling. And now here we are again.
I would ask you all: if I am wrong, then why DON’T the Cubs have any players whose skin is darker than Tony Orlando’s? Do you really think it is just a coincidence? The empirical evidence is on my side. I wish it were not so.
I hope he proves me wrong, but I think once you see him on a regular basis you’ll understand what we mean. My advice to Counsell is to avoid using Rea in high leverage situations as much as possible.
Well, there will be plenty of low-leverage innings for Rea to pitch, starting tomorrow night….I wonder if Steele will lead the league in AGH again this season.
I think Brad Keller could easily be the next Paul Skenes if he began throwing the Roger Beshens football slider. He just needs to be open to new ideas….
Should be chooch. You spelled it wrong.
Brad Keller couldn’t even be Olivia Dunne, regardless of what he learns…
“domestic Opening Day”
So, Opening Day.
i.e. The point where games should start to count.
Considering the Tokyo games did count, it is their domestic opening day.
Right. I’m saying they should not have counted. Good job reading.
The overseas opening day games have counted for years so not sure why you think this year should be any different.
Agreed, but the term itself has a kind of cutesy, precious, officious sound to it that offends the ear and the baseball sensibilities. Also, it seems to assume that teams going halfway around the world to play games that count in utterly atypical conditions is, well, OK–and call me a purist or a grouch or a Republican or something, but it is NOT OK, and I hope the Cubs never get mixed up in such nonsense again.
Domestic Opening Day is such a cringe term
Agree, but the term “cringe term” is something of a cringe term itself–a kind of instant tired cliché. When did we speakers of English stop saying what we mean and start speaking in trendy shorthand instead?
“Ackshually” vibes dude. Just stop.