Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski did very little this winter to improve a roster that has failed to gain much traction in five straight postseasons. One of the few acquisitions he did make was bringing in veteran reliever Brad Keller to serve as the setup man to closer Jhoan Duran.
Unfortunately, Keller has had a tough start to the season, and the Phils need to get to the bottom of his Jekyll and Hyde home/road splits.
Keller served as a member of the Kansas City Royals’ starting rotation for the first half-decade of his big league career before transitioning to a bullpen role while bouncing around the league. The right-hander broke out as a high-leverage relief option with the Chicago Cubs last season, posting a sparkling 2.07 ERA over 68 appearances.
That spectacular year earned the 30-year-old a two-year, $22 million contract from the Phillies this past offseason in the hopes that he could form an unstoppable bridge to Duran alongside José Alvarado. With former fireman Matt Strahm out of the picture and Orion Kerkering coming off of an all-time humiliation, Keller would be counted on to pick up a lot of the slack.
Unfortunately, Phillies fans got a taste of the struggles Keller can be prone to when he worked to an ugly 4.50 ERA for an underwhelming American squad at the World Baseball Classic. Still, four up-and-down preseason appearances were not enough to sour fans on the one big reinforcement Dombrowski brought in.
Alas, Keller has done little to reassure fans that his WBC troubles are behind him, as he’s put up a middling 4.12 ERA over 19 ⅔ innings pitched coming into Wednesday’s matchup against the Cincinnati Reds. He’s still struck out an encouraging 24 batters, but surrendering 18 hits and six walks hasn't done much to help his case.
Brad Keller has been a different pitcher at home, and it's not a better one
Even more troubling than Keller’s overall mediocrity are his extreme home/road splits. Most professional baseball players perform at their best in their home park and see a bit of a dip in production on the road. Curiously, Keller is the complete opposite as he’s posted an excellent 2.00 ERA in nine contests as the away team, but an atrocious 5.91 mark in 11 games at Citizens Bank Park.
The famed “four hours of hell” luster of the Bank has long since worn off after the Phillies have massively disappointed in recent playoff runs. However, it’s not unreasonable to expect the cheering of a home crowd to give a player a bit of extra juice. If the Phillies want to go far in October they’ll need Brad Keller at his best, and in order to do that they’ll need to get to the bottom of his struggles at Citizens Bank Park.
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