{"id":38944,"date":"2025-03-06T00:05:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T00:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944"},"modified":"2025-03-06T00:05:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T00:05:31","slug":"how-brad-keller-made-mid-career-velocity-jump-thats-turning-heads-in-cubs-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944","title":{"rendered":"How Brad Keller made mid-career velocity jump that’s turning heads in Cubs camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

MESA, Ariz. \u2014 The Cubs were the first team to contact right-hander Brad Keller when free agency opened this winter, a gesture he appreciated. And when it became clear they would be able to sign him to a minor-league deal with a spring-training invite, they jumped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some changes we started to see at the end of last year that gave us some pretty good confidence that we were going to see a little bit of a velo trend,\u201d Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said in a conversation with the Sun-Times. \u201cMaybe not to 98.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, that\u2019s about what Keller has thrown this spring. In the Cubs\u2019 Cactus League opener, he touched 97.9 mph, and his fastball averaged 96.3 \u2014 about three mph harder than the last two seasons. That caught the attention of his new teammates, and even the members of the coaching staff who already had some idea of his progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad Keller certainly was a little more than we expected,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said the next day. \u201cAnd that\u2019s always a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With roster decisions fast approaching, the Cubs now have to decide whether they want to continue to stretch out Keller. And that will hint toward whether they view him as a starter or multi-inning leverage reliever.<\/p>\n

The changes that had intrigued the Cubs in the first place started with a midseason switch in teams for Keller. After being designated for assignment by the White Sox in late May of last year, Keller signed with the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me three or four drills,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I kind of have a long arm action, so they wanted to tighten that up. And then they noticed that I will, at times, get a little spinny in my delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of those drills, Keller saw feedback from the \u201cKikuchi drill\u201d right away. He had heard of it before from working with the Maven Baseball Lab in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

In the drill, Keller pushes up onto the tiptoes of his back foot and then drops down before pushing off. It forces him to use his back leg to generate power and keeps him moving in a straight line down the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always heard it my whole career,\u201d Keller said of using his legs more, \u201cbut actually being able to have tangible drills that I can repeat helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

He draws a direct line between his old delivery \u2014 \u201cbasically throwing with all arm\u201d \u2014 and the thoracic outlet syndrome he battled in 2023. He underwent an operation to address the issue that offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically I was just reaching back, and the further I reached away, I was pulling my neck and all that fun stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keller attributes part of his velocity jump to his health. The mechanical adjustments and drills associated with them \u2014 as Keller \u201cran with\u201d the feedback from the Red Sox and then returned to Maven in the offseason \u2014 took care of the rest, while also serving as an injury-prevention tool.<\/p>\n

Over the course of Keller\u2019s career, his season velocity peaked in 2022, when his fastball averaged 94.5 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always shown flashes of throwing hard but never consistently,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe one pitch, two pitches here and there throughout a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of last season, Keller\u2019s velocity was trending up. In his last outing, a four-inning relief effort, his fastball was sitting at 95 mph.<\/p>\n

Said Hottovy: \u201cOur pitch this off season to him, when we were talking to him, was, \u2018Look, here are some things that we were seeing and were trending. We want you to continue on that,\u2019 hoping that we would see velocity increase from that point. Which we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

To kick off Cactus League play, Keller threw scoreless outings against the Dodgers (1\u2154 innings) and Padres (two innings).<\/p>\n

In his last appearance, against the Guardians last Saturday, Keller allowed four runs in 2\u2153 innings. Hottovy saw a pitcher who threw well in his first inning, faced five straight left-handed batters and worked through things his next, and fatigued the third time out. The main goal was upping Keller\u2019s workload, which they achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of how his stuff looked, velocity is in a great place, pitch shape is in a great place, mechanically he feels good, he\u2019s recovering well,\u201d Hottovy said. \u201cHe\u2019s checking all these boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Cubs will have extra flexibility as they set their roster for the March 18-19 series.<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Maddie Lee <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Crow-Armstrong was dealing with a tight right hamstring Monday.<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Maddie Lee <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Taillon threw a simulated game Monday.<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Maddie Lee <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Keller is in spring training with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee after signing a minor-league deal over the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":38945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Brad Keller made mid-career velocity jump that's turning heads in Cubs camp - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Brad Keller made mid-career velocity jump that's turning heads in Cubs camp - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Keller is in spring training with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee after signing a minor-league deal over the offseason.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T00:05:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/avtvip-40-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=38944\",\"name\":\"How Brad Keller made mid-career velocity jump that's turning heads in Cubs camp - 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