Brad Keller pitched a clean inning in his first game action with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Philadelphia Phillies spent a lot of time assessing their bullpen over the offseason. Those evaluations led the organization to sign Brad Keller to a two-year deal to be a high-leverage option for Philadelphia.
Keller made his spring training debut on Wednesday against the Detroit Tigers, representing the team’s opening pitcher. The righty only pitched one inning, but it was an efficient outing nonetheless. Keller pitched a one-two-three inning with one strikeout on 11 pitches.
Keller primarily threw his sinker and fastball in his first live action of the 2026 season, but also mixed in his sweeper and slider into the arsenal.
Overall, he generated three whiffs, which is impressive considering the low pitch count. Two of those whiffs came on the fastball, with the other coming on a slider.
Keller wasn’t too concerned with the results, though, and was just happy to be back on the mound in a game, rather than batting practice.
“It was good to get in there, face hitters, and kind of get in front of a stadium instead of the live back fields and stuff like that,” said the Phillies pitcher.
One of the eye-popping parts of Keller’s appearance was that his velocity maxed out at 97.3 mph, which was a tick above his average velocity from a year ago, which was 97.1.
The fact that Keller is already pumping some heat in his first appearance of the spring is an encouraging sign of how hard he could be throwing once fully built up.
After the game, Keller said, “When I first cracked in the big leagues, I feel like I was, like, touching 98 at times, and so I knew it was always in there. It was just, like, my mentality is always starting.”
The bullpen was an issue for the Phillies at times in 2025, which is why his addition is so vital.
Last year with the Chicago Cubs, Keller logged a 2.07 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP. The Phillies already have a closer, but Keller will be in line to throw plenty of high-leverage innings for Philadelphia in 2026.
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