Pittsburgh Pirates: Mitch Keller's Personal Catcher & More Takeaways From Series Loss vs Twins

Ji Hwan Bae back with a strong series

Due to an ankle injury, Ji Hwan Bae had been on the injured list since July 2nd. Bae returned from the injured list from the first game of the series on Friday night, bat lead off, and quickly made a bang in his return to the Pirates.

Bae started in center field on Friday and went 2-for-4 with a walk and a double. Saturday night Bae started at second base, going 1-for-3 with two walks, two runs scored, and a RBI. Bae once again was in center field and leading off on Sunday, but went 0-for-4. Although, an awful Laz Diaz strike zone (shocker, I know) robbed Bae of a walk on Sunday.

Even though Bae was 0-for in the series finale it was still a strong series for him. Especially when you consider he had not faced MLB pitching in nearly two months. Certainly putting a strong foot down in his return to action.

Bae may never be an every day player in the majors. However, if the Pirates can get anything close to this version of Bae or the Bae that they got in April, then he could carve out a role as a very valuable utility player in the majors.

Jason Delay is becoming Mitch Keller's personal catcher

It has been an odd season for Pirate starting pitcher Mitch Keller. The first time All-Star has struggled for the better part of the last three seasons, but put together a strong start agaisnt the Twins on Saturday night by striking out 12 batters while allowing just 2 earned runs in 6 innings pitched.

With this start, Keller now owns a 4.22 ERA, 3.71 FIP, 7.1% walk rate, and a 26.0% strikeout rate in 155.2 innings pitched across 26 starts this season. The biggest takeaway from his strong start against the Twins is that Jason Delay appears to be turning into Keller's personal catcher.

Saturday night was Keller's fourth start since the Pirates traded Austin Hedges to the Texas Rangers. After Endy Rodriguez started the first of those four starts, Delay has caught Keller in the last three. Keller has posted a 3.18 ERA with a 5.4% walk rate, 31.1% strikeout rate, and he's allowed just one home run in 17 innings pitched.

Now, long term, this is something that can not continue. The future of the catcher position for the Pirates is Rodriguez. However, Keller will have all of next spring to work with Rodriguez and develop that pitcher/catcher rapport that is necessary. For now, it appears that Delay will continue to catch Keller down the stretch this season.

Henry Davis in a major slump

It did not take former no. 1 overall pick Henry Davis to make an impact when he was promoted to the majors in June. Davis was impressive early on, and this included him becoming the first player to ever hit two home run off of Shohei Ohtani in the same game when he accomplished the feat on July 21st.

However, for the better part of a month, Davis has been in a major slump. Really, this dates back to the day after his multi-home run game against Ohtani and the Angels. That slide continued into this weekend's series.

Davis started two of the three games in right field going 0-for-7 with three strikeouts. This included striking out to end the 7th inning on Friday when the Pirates had runners on the corners and were trailing just 3-1.

Since that 2 home run game in Anaheim Davis has been absolutely woeful. In 99 plate appearances dating back to July 22nd, he is hitting .125/.232/.205. To call that woeful would be a drastic understatement.

The current approach at the plate for Davis is not working. Especially his approach when he's behind in the count and against off-speed pitches. Something needs to change and ASAP with Davis. Unfortunately, there is little to no reason to believe hitting coach Andy Haines is capable of helping make those changes occur.

Which leads us to our next point...

Andy Haines MUST go

We are closing in on the end of August in year two of Andy Haines as Pirate hitting coach. There have been zero noteworthy improvements with the Pirate lineup during this time. Many young hitters have either failed to improve, or have just flat out regressed.

Any other organization in baseball would have fired their hitting coach under these circumstances. But not the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not an organization that continually seems unserious about, well, everything.

Just take the struggles of Davis as an example. He was drafted no. 1 overall due to his elite offensive potential. Throughout the minors he was viewed as an elite hitting prospect and hit like one. Now in the majors, Davis is unable to make any adjustments whatsoever and has looked hopeless against off-speed pitching.

Haines should be fired right now. This very second. By the time you're done reading this sentence he should be on the street looking for a new job, but he won't be. Oh, and let's be honest, does anyone really think he'll be fired this offseason? Not I.

Again, an unserious organization.