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Pittsburgh Pirates: Non-Tendered Pitchers Worth Pursuing
By Noah Wright
Keynan Middleton
Keynan Middleton once looked like a long term bullpen arm for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In his rookie campaign, Middleton tossed 58.1 innings with a 3.86 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and 4.38 FIP. Not the best of surface numbers, but he had a 25.6% strikeout rate, walked just 7.3% of the batters he faced and had a sub-4 Deserved Run Average and SIERA.
He also started out the season as the Angels’ 8th best prospect per FanGraphs. His biggest issue was home runs. Middleton allowed 1.80 HR/9 during his rookie campaign.
Middleton started out the 2018 season as the Angels’ set-up man, but was moved to the closer role early on into the season. Middleton saw his ERA, FIP and WHIP drop to 2.04, 3.78 and 1.30. Middleton did see his HR/9 take a nosedive to just .51, but saw his strikeout and walk rates move in the wrong direction. His strikeout rate was just 22.5% and his walk rate 12.7%. However, he only tossed 17.2 innings before having to undergo Tommy John surgery.
He’s only pitched 19.2 innings since returning from surgery, but he still has electric stuff. His four seam fastball averaged 97.1 MPH, which sat in the top 91st percentile in all of baseball. It also has plenty of spin with 2489 RPM. That ranked in the top 89th percentile of fastball spin rates in 2020. His slider and change-up are solid complementary pitches to his fastball, and his slider has a future 55 grade per FanGraphs. Next year will be his age 27 season, so he’s still fairly young and could be a solid arm on a low cost deal.