After a disastrous road trip to New York and Philadelphia that saw them go a combined 1-5, the Pittsburgh Pirates are finally back home. Mitch Keller takes the mound tonight at PNC Park as the reeling Buccos open a three-game series with their NL Central rivals from Cincinnati.

Keller is 1-5 so far this season, with a 4.15 ERA, 1.327 WHIP, and 2.69 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 52 innings. Tonight will mark Keller’s tenth start of the season.

But as his team continues to plummet in the standings, Keller’s name has made some headlines as a potential trade candidate. Should the Pirates consider trading Keller?

Matthew Scabilloni makes an appearance in the first ever point-counterpoint on Fifth Avenue Sports to debate that very topic.

The Pirates Shouldn’t Think Twice About Trading Mitch Keller Away // Matthew Scabilloni

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ season is already in the dumps. They are 17 games below .500, haven’t recorded more than five runs since April 22nd and will sell at the trade deadline.

Right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller is one piece that the Pirates should absolutely have as a part of their end-of-July sale. Once the ace of the Pirates rotation is now behind Paul Skenes and, sooner rather than later, Bubba Chandler.

The Pirates’ clear strength is their starting pitching staff, but they have to trade away some of their starting pitchers to yield better results because having aces on the mound has not added any more W’s for the Buccos. 

Keller is the expendable piece the Pirates must use to give them some run support for the future when Skenes, Chandler and the currently injured Jared Jones are the stars of the rotation and in the primes of their career. The 29-year-old Keller is slowly passing the prime of his career, and the Pirates have to cash in before it is too late.

The Pirates cannot think that Keller, the presumptive fourth-best starting pitcher for the Pirates in 2026, is an untouchable asset. Heck, he could even be the Pirates’ sixth-best starting pitcher in 2026 as both Thomas Harrington and Hunter Barco are top 100 prospects according to MLB.com and heading towards the prime of their careers.

The Pirates’ 2025 season is a lost cause, but 2026 isn’t — they are 0 games below .500, and for the Pirates to stay above that mark, they must make smart business decisions throughout the 2025 campaign.

The first order of business: trade the aging Keller and add some much-needed hitting prospects from that trade.

The Pittsburgh Pirates organization has more than enough arms to supplement winning. It’s now time to add someone who can give Skenes something better than 0 runs of run support.

Pirates Should Dip More Into Prospect Pool For Trades, And Keep Keller // Alex Kiger

There’s no doubt that the Pirates need to make trades for offense, and their one path to doing that is dealing from their strong depth of arms both in the majors and farm system. But I’m just not sure Mitch Keller provides the value in the trade market that the Pirates would need to get in return. 

Keller has been a very consistent league average pitcher. He’s good for a few wins above replacement every season and is remarkably consistent in his season-long performance as a big league pitcher. He has also remained remarkably healthy over his time in the bigs, but his numbers aren’t one of a top tier pitcher. 

Keller’s season ERA has been within 20 points of the league average in every season since 2022. The same can be said for many of his other numbers: they are remarkably consistent, but they aren’t at the top of MLB leaderboards. 

Does a nearly league average pitcher on a somewhat expensive contract really fetch all that much in the trade market? Would he fare all that better than some of the pitching prospects the Pirates have? 

Bubba Chandler, now considered baseball’s best pitching prospect, should be off the table in any trade talks. But the Pirates can still test the market for names like Thomas Harrington, Po-Yu Chen, Mike Burrows, Hunter Barco (injury depending) and others. 

I also think it’s important to keep at least one experienced guy on the rotation, which is incredibly young. Paul Skenes took over the “ace” title the moment he was promoted, but this is only his first full season in the major leagues. Chandler will be a rookie when he arrives. Jared Jones, whenever he can return from a concerning arm injury, has less than a full season to his name. 

The only more experienced arms in the rotation, Bailey Falter and Andrew Heaney, probably both have a higher likelihood of being out the door at the deadline. 

Personally, I would keep Keller and try my luck acquiring bats with my other arms. Not that I particularly trust general manager Ben Cherington to succeed at that.

In Cherington’s horrid history as Pirates general manager, he has a serious track record of getting ripped off. This is the same guy who traded Jameson Taillon, Tyler Anderson, Clay Holmes, Richard Rodriguez, and several pitchers alone for pennies on the dollar, if even that.

But it seems like the bigger the major league name involved, the worse the trade is for the Pirates. Keller might be able to fetch the average general manager some offense in return, but Cherington is no average general manager. He has not proven he knows what he is doing at all, and I simply don’t trust him to send away one of the few players this organization has succeeded in developing.