Mitch Keller’s season ended the day before the trade deadline, when the Pirates placed him on the 60-day injured list due to a teres major strain in his right shoulder. The team didn’t provide major specifics at the time, but Aiden Stepansky of MLB.com writes that Keller is believed to have suffered a Grade 3 strain — a gruesome injury that saw his teres major muscle detach from the bone.
Keller somewhat remarkably didn’t require surgery. Doctors recommended a lengthy down period and rehab. The plan has been for him to resume throwing late this month, and he’s expected to have a normal offseason.
The injury didn’t occur on one specific pitch, it seems. Keller told Stepansky he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment at which it occurred. That suggests he was pitching through discomfort for some time, and the results bear that out. The typically steady Keller was dinged for a 5.29 ERA in 22 starts. His 17.7% strikeout rate was a career-worst, and his 8.3% walk rate — while still solid — was his highest since 2022. He posted a sub-7% mark each year from 2023-25. Keller’s 93.3 mph average fastball was also a career-low mark. He sat at a season-low 91.9 mph in his final start before hitting the injured list.
The Bucs still have Keller signed for another two years at a total of $38MM. Assuming his recovery continues without issue, he should slot back into a strong rotation that also includes young starters Paul Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft, Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler. He’s just 30 years old but is the clear elder statesman of that group. Keller has often seen his name come up in trade rumors, but between the money left on his deal, his poor 2026 results and the season-ending injury, it’s hard to imagine a strong market for his services this winter. If he can bounce back to his prior form, the remaining $38MM on the contract shouldn’t be onerous even for the small-budget Bucs. Keller pitched 707 2/3 innings with a 4.15 ERA and strong rate stats from 2022-25, averaging 177 innings and 31 starts per season along the way.
Young outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez also finished the season on the injured list due to a hamstring strain, but he tells Jason Mackey of MLB.com that he’s healthy now and doesn’t expect any lingering issues next year. “I’ve been running, hitting normally and catching the ball in the outfield. Everything has been good,” Valdez tells Mackey.
The 22-year-old Valdez (23 in January) adds that he’s gearing up to head to his native Dominican Republic where he’ll play in the Dominican Winter League. He didn’t play winter ball last year but did suit up in the Colombian Winter League during the 2023-24 offseason. A run with los Leones del Escogido in the D.R. this winter will give him an opportunity to test that previously ailing hamstring and get some more reps under his belt as he looks to carve out a permanent spot in Pittsburgh’s outfield.
Valdez made his major league debut this past season and showed big raw power, belting 17 homers in just 287 trips to the plate. He hit .232/.345/.510 overall in his first taste of the majors. By measure of wRC+, that’s 30% better than average all-around production at the plate. Add in the 13 round-trippers he tallied in 237 Triple-A plate appearances, and Valdez popped 30 big flies overall this year — while playing in just 128 games with 524 turns at the plate. He showed terrific batted-ball metrics, too, averaging 91.9 mph off the bat with a 49.3% hard-hit rate in the majors.
It’s obviously an encouraging rookie campaign, but there’s one glaring red flag. Valdez punched out in an untenable 37.5% of his plate appearances. He needed a hefty .328 BABIP and huge 26.6% homer-to-flyball ratio to pull his average up to .232. Valdez’s strikeouts don’t stem from chasing too many pitches off the plate, however. They stem from poor bat-to-ball skills even on pitches within the strike zone. Valdez made contact on just 71.3% of the pitches he swung at inside the strike zone, per Statcast.
That’s the second-worst mark among the 361 hitters who took at least 200 plate appearances this season. A massive 14.6% walk rate kept his on-base percentage afloat, but Valdez is going to need to find a way to make more contact in the zone if he’s going to cement himself as an everyday corner outfielder in the middle of Pittsburgh’s lineup — especially because he’s not considered a particularly adept defender. For now, he’ll enter the offseason as a favorite for the right field gig alongside center fielder Oneil Cruz and left fielder Bryan Reynolds, but it’s possible the Bucs could bring in some other help.
Elsewhere in the organization, changes are already underway. Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates have hired Sean Buchanan away from the Astros. He’d been Houston’s pitching coach at the Triple-A level. Buchanan is expected to work in the upper levels of the Pirates’ system, but a specific title for him has yet to be determined.
Chandler Rome of The Athletic reported earlier in the summer that Buchanan was instrumental in Peter Lambert’s breakout with the Astros this year. The former Rockies righty had posted a 6.28 ERA through 74 big league games prior to signing a minor league deal with the Astros. He spent 2025 in Japan, pitching to a 4.26 ERA for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yakult Swallows as a member of their rotation. This year, Lambert was the savior of an injury-plagued rotation, giving Houston 155 2/3 innings of 3.82 ERA ball with a 23.2% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.
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