Glare of spotlight is on Brad Keller as a potential pillar of Royals’ future
It wouldn’t be opening day eve if it didn’t bring out the curmudgeon in Royals manager Ned Yost, who loves the pomp and ceremony ahead for the fans but wants to get distractions out of the way and get into the rhythm of the season and figured on Wednesday there were just “too many people around.”
Meaning the few dozen media members he was teasing about that ahead of the scheduled 2019 season opener against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday at 3:15 at Kauffman Stadium.
After all, this time of anticipation and romanticizing the game is routine enough now for Yost, who has been in Major League Baseball almost continually since making his debut with the Brewers in 1980 and is entering his 10th season of managing the Royals.
But that media crowd and this moment is entirely different for 23-year-old Brad Keller, who is set to be the youngest opening day starter for the Royals since Steve Busby in 1973 — when the franchise was in its infancy after it debuted 50 years ago next month.
His age makes for a telling parallel as the organization seeks to reset after drooping to 58-104 last year. And the scene Wednesday offered a microcosm of what that will mean for Keller, who may for different reasons also have felt there were too many people around.
Safe to say, the young man who wasn’t sure he’d even make the team last year and then exceeded any possible expectations never before had faced as much direct media spotlight as he did at a news conference Wednesday in front of reporters and numerous cameras.
A longtime dream suddenly has happened awfully fast for a player who two years ago was in Class AA ball for Arizona before the Royals plucked him out of virtual anonymity in the 2017 Rule 5 draft.
“Absolutely,” said Keller, who handled questions with poise but appeared to break a sweat as he spoke and added, “It’s crazy.”
Actually, Keller made it completely logical by going 7-2 in 12 starts after the All-Star break and winning five of his last six decisions. Along the way, he tied for the team lead in wins (9-6) and had a 3.08 ERA with 83 strikeouts and 43 walks in 118 innings as a starter (8-5).
No wonder catcher Salvador Perez anointed him the Opening Day starter early in spring training, before, alas, Perez was injured and lost for the season, and Yost followed suit by naming him a few weeks later.
Keller thus is emblematic of what the Royals are setting out to do these next few seasons: infuse their lineup with young talent (Adalberto Mondesi, most notably, and Hunter Dozier, Jorge Lopez and Ryan O’Hearn, among others) that they hope is the nucleus of their future while replenishing their minor-league system.
“A lot of our players entered spring training this year for the very first time knowing they’re going to be on the team,” general manager Dayton Moore said. “That’s something they haven’t experienced before.”
As such, Moore called Keller’s opening-day assignment “the natural progression for what you have to do to become a top-rotation pitcher” but understands that it’s part of an entire new set of challenges he’ll face.
The transition from pleasant surprise to key building block for the future means Keller will be called on to be a crucial stabilizing force in the rotation even as he is up against one of baseball’s ever-lurking corrective dynamics: proving you can do it again and over time.
Keller has earned the Royals’ trust and confidence from the start, Moore said. But hitters inevitably will adjust to Keller, now a known quantity, and Moore knows it’s “harder to repeat and stay consistent.”
So, weather willing, Thursday will represent a notable first day in the rest of Keller’s career. To brace himself, he’s spoken with teammates Homer Bailey, Danny Duffy, Wily Peralta, each of whom have previously been opening day starters. He figures he needs to just think about what he can control (not the weather) and do his pre-game crossword puzzle just like before any other start.
“Nothing should change,” Duffy said during spring training. “They got all these cannons going off and fireworks going off and streamers going off — you’ve still got to go out there and do your routine. He’s going to be able to do that.
“He’s beyond his years. He’s nasty. He’s professional. He’s going to be able to get the job done regardless of all the distractions and the noise.”
Just the same, as Keller considered how he might sleep Wednesday, he conceded, “You’d like to think (it will be) just be a normal night, but nerves are already setting in.”
Which is as it should be for what ultimately is just one game but, more to the point, his first appearance in this new role as a potential pillar of the future. All at once, the glare of the spotlight will make for a thrilling prospect and a daunting task for Keller, who at least in this sense can share an Opening Day perspective with Yost:
His production over the course of the season will be far more meaningful than what takes place amid the first-game spectacle -- which nevertheless is a feeling the Royals hope he gets used to for bigger stages ahead.
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Glare of spotlight is on Brad Keller as a potential pillar of Royals’ future."