When the Phillies signed Brian Keller on May 18, it didn’t make much of a splash. After all he was a 32-year-old who had never pitched in the majors and spent the past couple of years rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.
After spending the early part of his career in the minor league systems of the Yankees and Red Sox, Keller signed with the Hanshin Tigers of the NPB league in Japan before the 2023 season. But before he could pitch a single inning for them, he suffered an elbow injury that would take
him out of action for multiple years.
Finally confident his arm was ready to handle professional innings again, Keller tried out with the Phillies in May, and they must have liked what they saw because they signed him to a minor league contract.
Keller impressed at AAA, with a 2.24 ERA in nine starts. When the Phillies found themselves in need of a “bulk” pitcher for one game, he finally got the call to make his major league debut. On July 25th, in a game against the Yankees, Keller was called upon to start the third inning. He pitched three innings, giving up one run.
He was returned to Lehigh Valley afterwards, and whatever success he had experienced before his promotion was gone. He might have been the worst pitcher in the Lehigh Valley rotation down the stretch, which is saying a lot.
What went right
His first AAA stint was very good. He had a 2.24 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 11 walks in 36.1 innings. As for his brief major league tenure, one run in three innings certainly isn’t the worst showing by a Phillies pitcher this year.
Most importantly, after years of injury and toil across multiple continents, he was finally able to make it to the big leagues, which is a success in itself.
What went wrong
Basically, everything after his major league outing. His strikeout to walk ratio went haywire, as he struck out 16 and walked 18 while giving up 41 runs in 30.1 innings. He was so bad that when the Phillies were in desperate need for someone to pitch a few innings, he wasn’t even a consideration.
The future
Keller is 32 years old and a free agent, so the Phillies would be justified in choosing to move in another direction. But it’s possible that his collapse in the later part of the year was mostly due to this being his first year pitching competitively after three years of injury and rehab and his arm was just tired. The Phillies might look at his early success and feel like there’s something to work with there. I could see them offering him a minor league invite to camp.
Final grade: C-
He gave them three non-horrible innings in the majors, but it would have been nice if he could have been an option later in the season.
