The Pirates will get their season underway at blustery, cold and it-doesn't-really-feel-like-baseball-weather Wrigley Field at about 2:20 p.m.
(our time) Thursday afternoon.
They'll get their ups to start. They might score 11 runs in that top of the first. Plenty prognosticators think it is a sure bet they'll go down 1-2-3.
No matter how that top half goes, we know this: Chad Kuhl will be marched out there to face Cubs hitters in the bottom half.
Good for Kuhl.
He's taken that long road back from Tommy John, is a new father at 28 and has had ups and downs but at this point can be viewed as someone who has been relatively decent for the club.
Let me interject, however. Isn't the Opening Day starter situation for the Pirates in 2021 just as much about who it isn't as who it is? Maybe even more about who it isn't, to be perfectly frank.
At this point ---- and as he turns 25 later this week ---- wasn't the expectation that Mitch Keller would be a commanding force atop the rotation? He was supposed to be "the guy" by now, right? I mean, for me he was. He should be there; by now he was supposed to be this team's ace.
Keller was drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft and quickly was surrounded by a heap of scuttlebutt that he was a surefire top-of-the-rotation guy. The Iowan was someone who was even seen, at times at least by the old regime, as untouchable in any trade talks.
After all, Mitch Keller was going to be the one when it all shook down that was a foolproof stud and was going to baffle hitters for the Pirates, even if the rest of the guys on his team were just so-so.
Yeah, so what has happened?
Why are we here with Kuhl getting the ball and Keller trying to keep warm with a jacket on as we celebrate the first day of the baseball season?
To this point Keller has pitched to a 5.81 ERA in 16 starts over two seasons. He also got beat up pretty good in this most recent Spring Training in his five outings, accumulating an 11.91 ERA as he gave up 23 hits and walked eight in just 11.1 innings.
So, yes. He needs to get it together. It is safe to say Mitch Keller is falling pretty far behind the projected timeline that the organization had for Mitch Keller.
It isn't a rosy picture right now. It just isn't.
There is a saving grace, however.
Keller is slated to pitch on Sunday in Chicago for the Pirates and perhaps has it in him to put together a solid performance and answer a ton of questions --- all questions that are merited as he left Bradenton with Pirates fans still wondering what his career arc will be.
When you go up and down the Pirates' roster this season, you can anticipate who is a placeholder, who is a guy the Pirates plan on still being here the next time they mount up and try to make a run and who is kind of in the middle.
With Keller, I'm at the point where I don't know what to think. I don't know what group to put the guy in.
I do know this: I thought for sure he'd be an Opening Day starter by this point in his career because we've been told he was going to be that good. Of every player on this 2021 Pirates roster, perhaps it is Keller who has the most to personally win or lose by what he does this season.
