Kansas City Royals give Brad Keller the nod as their Opening Day starting pitcher
The Kansas City Royals want Brad Keller to set the tone. They trust him to do that while working side-by-side with the organization’s young pitchers on the back fields in Arizona. They trust him to do it each game they hand him the ball and he takes the mound.
And they trust the 6-foot-5, 255-pound right-hander to set the tone for a season they’ll enter with raised expectations.
Royals manager Mike Matheny announced Keller will start the season opener April 1 against the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium. It will mark Keller’s second time as the Opening Day starting pitcher and solidifies the organization’s view of him as the budding ace of the pitching staff.
“He’s our guy,” Matheny said. “I want him taking some ownership. He’s been there before. He did it as a very young pitcher and understood what it meant to throw that first game. He’s got a couple other veterans there too, guys who’ve thrown well and deserve to throw it. But we believe that Brad can be that guy that helps lead this staff.”
The Royals four-man rotation to start the regular season will feature Keller in the opener followed by left-hander Mike Minor in the second game against his former team, then right-hander Brady Singer in the third game with and left-hander Danny Duffy against the Cleveland Indians in their home opener.
“I think our staff as a whole is really impressive to watch,” said Keller, who is entering his fourth season in the majors. “... I think for a really good rotation it’s like when one guy has put up an outing then the next guy tops it, the next guy tops it, the next guy tops it, and it kind of goes on from there. You turn around at the end of the season, and you just put up really good numbers for the team. Also, you win a lot of ballgames that way.
“I think it’s huge. I’m really excited and honored to get the first game.”
Keller, 25, began last season on the injured list as he continued to ramp up his throwing progression after his spring training 2.0/summer camp got interrupted by a COVID-19 infection. He was not active for the first 13 games.
Even with that late start, Keller won the club’s pitcher of the year award for 2020, adding to his 2018 honor. Keller led the Royals with five wins in his nine starts. He posted a 5-3 record with a 2.47 ERA and ranked fifth in the American League in ERA.
He recorded his first career shutout in an 11-0 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 13, the team’s only shutout by a starter in 2020. He went 4-0 with a 0.27 ERA at Kauffman Stadium last season.
Keller’s first Opening Day start came at Kauffman Stadium on March 28, 2019. He pitched seven scoreless innings, struck out five and allowed two hits and one walk in a win against the Chicago White Sox.
“The first thing that jumps out at me was we had like a three-hour rain delay to start the game,” Keller said of that experience. “So the nerves last way too much longer than they should’ve. I just remember warming up and being overly hyped about it, super-excited, fans there, getting the opportunity to pitch that first game. Honestly, I feel like I blacked out once the game started. I was so excited. I feel like I was dialed in.”
While Keller described that experience as a “whirlwind,” he recalled the Royals starting out 1-0 and then Jakob Junis getting the win in the following game to make them 2-0. He’d like to replicate that part of the experience.
The news of being named the Opening Day starter may only be tied for the best news of the week for Keller.
A Georgia native who grew up admiring and emulating former Atlanta Braves right-hander John Smoltz, Keller was interviewed by the Hall of Famer Smoltz earlier in the week as part of MLB Network’s “30 Clubs in 30 Days” feature on the Royals.
“They were hand in hand, I will say that,” a laughing and grinning Keller said when asked to compare finding out about both events. “John Smoltz is my childhood idol. He’s the guy that kind of got me into pitching, the guy I kind of emulated my game after. To hear that news was pretty incredible. I think they were hand in hand. They’re equal. It’s been special so far.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 1:10 PM.
