Kansas City Royals: Brad Keller proved he’s ace material in 2020

Brad Keller impressed for the Kansas City Royals in the shortened 2020 season and could be the team’s ace moving forward.

The Kansas City Royals struck gold with Brad Keller and he continues to be the gift that keeps on giving after he was a Rule-5 draft pick in 2018. The Royals initially had Keller in their bullpen, but he was relocated to the rotation after some injuries occurred and he’s remained there ever since.

Keller was terrific in his rookie year, but had some setbacks in 2019. Because of his wishy washy 2019 performance, Royals fans weren’t entirely sure who Keller really was on the mound, but he proved in 2020 that he could be this team’s ace for the foreseeable future.

Keller started the season away from the team due to testing positive for COVID-19, forcing him to miss the first week and a half of the season. He responded well after his recovery, winning his first three starts of the year and not allowing a single run in any of those starts while surrendering just eight total hits. He walked eight batters and struck out 15.

Brad Keller showed he can be the ace of the Kansas City Royals.

Keller might have only made nine total starts in the shortened season, but he was tremendous in six of them. The highlight of his short season was when he pitched a complete game shutout on September 13th against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In that game, Keller gave up just five hits and walked only one batter while striking out two. He threw 111 pitches in that 11-0 Royals victory.

The Royals needed to see this kind of season from Keller because he’s going to be their ace moving forward and he proved in 2020 that he can fill that role. The team will be relying on a lot of youngsters in their rotation and Keller might end up being the oldest of the group at just 25 years old. Seeing him make this kind of progress after a shaky 2019 season was a beautiful sight.

Now of course it’s worth noting that the 2020 season did consist of 98 less games in the regular season, meaning Keller missed out on another 15+ starts, but we can only judge off of what we saw this year and what we saw was an ace-worthy pitcher in Brad Keller.

It’ll be fun continuing to watch Keller grow into a potential ace role and if the Kansas City Royals can punch their ticket to the postseason in the next few years, Brad Keller will undoubtedly be their ace on the mound.