The Pittsburgh Pirates are not a good baseball team. Everyone knows this, including president of baseball operations Ben Cherington. While Cherington is operating under the assumption that he has a long leash, Pirates fans would like to think otherwise. Paul Skenes and Oneil Cruz may be young now, but they won't wait around forever. This was supposed to be the season Pittsburgh jumped into contention. Instead, they took a turn for the worse, and now Mitch Keller might pay the price.
It'll come as ano surprise that the Pirates have spoken to rival teams about Keller. He's on a team-friendly contract and, in a year without many top-flight starting pitchers available, could fetch a decent return. Even we cannot blame them for taking calls. The Chicago Cubs, an NL Central rival, have been the most aggressive possible suitor for Keller, who has a 1.3 WAR and 3.90 ERA entering play on Sunday. That's not a great look, but still understandable if the Cubs are willing to overpay.
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Pirates fans will be enraged by latest Mitch Keller rumors
However, what many Pirates fans are not willing to deal with is incompetence. Cherington and the Pirates front office has reportedly been shopping Keller for over a week, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. That shows just how much belief Cherington has in this team, which had been improving of late under Don Kelly.
Keller isn't on an expiring contract, and is an affordable top-level starter the Pirates ought to build around if they hope to win with Skenes anytime in the immediate future. Instead, Cherington and owner Bob Nutting are hitting the restart button yet again.
Paul Skenes deserves better than this Pirates front office
Skenes has issued several warnings to the Pirates brass this season, mostly aimed at the players still on the roster. While Skenes by no means is trying to disrespect Cherington, Kelly or his teammates, he does want to showcase his urgency with a franchise stuck in the mud.
"If nothing else, we're going to grow. We better grow. If we don't grow, it's a completely lost season," Skenes said over a month ago when Shelton was fired. Pittsburgh has definitely shown some growth since then, bonding with Kelly and using their current predicament as fuel to avoid – as Skenes put it – a lost season.
The Pirates are not a playoff team and thus should sell at the MLB trade deadline. Heck, even Keller could be a part of that fire sale. Yet, Pittsburgh's urgency to sell off one of the best assets available to a division rival – remember, this all started in mid-June when the deadline isn't until late July – is rather shocking and an indictment of where the Pirates values truly lie.
Cherington wants to save face and earn another year in Pittsburgh with the promise of top prospects in the pipeline. Skenes wants to win, and win soon. It's more clear by the day the two aren't aligned. Nutting ought to side with his player for a change.