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Mitch Keller Sidelined With Continued Back Tightness

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PITTSBURGH — The back tightness that had Mitch Keller pulled from his start on May 16 and landed him on the minor-league disabled list 10 days later has flared back up and what was originally expected to be a short-term absence will now be extended, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said on Sunday.

Keller was pulled from his last start with High-A Bradenton after throwing just one inning after complaining of lower back tightness, and a week ago, Huntington said that it was expected to be a short-term injury. Then, Keller was placed on the minor-league disabled list on Thursday.

The tightness in Keller’s back reappeared when the prepared to start up his throwing program after being medically cleared, and now the Pirates have shut him down for a longer period of time.

“Mitch was ready to get back into competition again and he felt some continued tightness, so he’s going to have a little bit longer time down,” Huntington said. “Kind of a recurrence of the issue that set him aside in that one start. Again, he felt great and checked every box to be ready to take that next step forward. When he took the next step forward, it grabbed on him again. He’ll probably go a little bit more slowly this time through. He feels better than he did when it grabbed on him again. It should be just a relatively minor thing, but we want to keep it that way.”

Keller was down for 10 days before being placed on the disabled list, so a time period longer than that down would give him a return timeframe of no sooner than mid-June.

The top pitching prospect in the Pirates’ system, Keller was a second-round draft pick in 2014 out of Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has a 2.46 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP in eight starts so far this season. In 2016 with Low-A West Virginia, he posted a 2.46 ERA in 23 starts and was named the Pirates Prospects minor-league pitcher of the year.

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