What Do the Pirates Do With Mitch Keller Now?

What's going on, everybody? Good morning. Welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel. This is Bucco Brew powered by Defer Coffee and Tea.

I am Jim Rosati. Not joining me this morning, apparently, is Anthony DiNardo. I was joking with him in Arizona just yesterday or the day before that I don't think he understood time zones.

So we're back in the eastern time zone after being three hours behind for a few days. I don't know if DiNardo hasn't figured that out yet.

I don't know if he realizes that when he traveled back home, he went, forward in time three hours because it's now 11 minutes after 7 a.m., which is the start of this show.

And there's still no signs of DiNardo. He's not answering his phone. So I was just like, you know what?

We're going to start this thing. If DiNardo wakes up and joins at any point, he's more than welcome to.

But, yeah, guys, I don't know if I've heard of a guy who doesn't understand time zones as much as DiNardo.

Anyways, we're back. We're back. So if you're in the chat, Bucko Mike, I see you. I appreciate you in here.

Feel free to drop in your thoughts on the show. Right now I'm going solo. So I'm solo for now.

We've got some things to discuss today. If I said you've got you've got things to say on the topics we're talking about, drop them in the chat.

We'll make you guys part of the show this morning. But a couple of things I wanted to discuss today.

One, Aiden Sapansky of MLB.com brought up, was able to talk to Mitch Keller a little bit and got some quotes from him, talked about how his season went, talked about his injury, talked about just how he felt

and what his plan is for the offseason and going in the next year.

So I want to talk about Mitch Keller a little bit. Obviously, a pretty hot topic for discussion where he's someone the Pirates need to decide on what exactly to do with this offseason.

So we'll get into that. We're approaching the obviously the end of the season.

The World Series is, the two games in. The Brewers have won two games.

What that means is the offseason is about to start. Right. So Brandon Lowe is about to become a free agent.

Obviously, the Pirates can offer a qualifying offer there where they where they it's twenty three point one five million dollars is the qualifying offer this year.

I think it's pretty much a no brainer to go ahead and offer that to him.

But I want to talk about just the bigger picture with Brandon Lowe and then we'll wrap things up with really just like can Ben Cherington repeat what he did last offseason?

Because I think he had a pretty good offseason last year. It was just not enough. Right.

But I think if he's able to do another offseason this year, similar to what he did last year, maybe minus the Marcell Ozuna signing, this team can maybe get enough to push themselves over the edge.

So let's start off. Let's start off. What's up, Ethan?

Ethan's wife is making him a bacon, egg and cheese. Love that. Love that, Ethan.

I actually had a bacon, egg and cheese croissant one morning when I was down in Arizona. It was it was delicious.

Bucko Mike says DiNardo probably couldn't turn his phone on. Probably. That makes sense.

Yellow beard. Sometimes you got to go solo. Yeah. I don't know what's up with him. I don't know.

It's Bucko Mike says time zones and technology. Denardi struggles.

Yeah, there was there was actually our Arizona Fall League recap video if you haven't checked those out.

But there was one of them where he the one that he uploaded. I was like, hey, make sure it goes live at, 8 a.m.

Eastern time. And he posted it for 8 a.m.

Arizona time. So it didn't it wasn't in there until 11 a.m.

Eastern time. So when I woke up, two hours before him, I had to just post it immediately.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The time zone thing. He's just not good with them. Not good with them.

So who knows what's going on here. But yeah, let's talk about this.

So let's start with Mitch Keller. Again, Aiden Stepanski, MLB dot com. Got a chance to talk to him.

If you haven't read that article, make sure you do. It's linked down in the in the description there.

Couple lines from Mitch Keller. I just want to point out before we get into this.

Mitch Keller said that, first off, he's healthy right now, didn't undergo any procedures, expected to begin throwing again at the end of October, which is pretty much now he expects to have a normal offseason.

He mentioned that it was a weird year. Honestly, I didn't really feel like myself or feel 100 percent the whole year.

So I was trying just I was just not trying to be too hard on myself just because I didn't feel like myself or the best I could.

Goes on to say, I think there was definitely some positives throughout the year, early in the year, and then just some learning things to go through health wise and stuff hindered my ability to be the best I could be out there.

So I'm just looking forward to next year being 100 percent healthy and just being on track.

So I guess my question for you guys and the question that I'm going to try to try to answer here, right, is does the injury that, Keller sustained, does it does it change the way you judge his 2026 season at all?

Right. you look at what he's done in the past in 2023, pitched 194 innings, 4.21 earned run average, 2024, 178 innings, 4.25 ERA, 2025, 176 innings, 4.19 ERA.

So he's like covering right in that 4.2 ERA territory for multiple years now pitching, a lot of innings.

And then this year, right, that jumps up to 5.29 ERA over 115 innings.

So strikeout rate dropped, right?

he struck out 210 people in 2023 strikeout rate just continued to drop every single year.

This year, it was its lowest that it had ever been, in his 115 innings of work.

He struck out 89 batters.

That's good for a strikeout percentage of 17.7 percent.

That's the lowest of his career.

And you look over the last three years, right?

It peaked in 2023 at 25.5 percent, dropped to 21.5, dropped to 20.

Like I said, now dropped to 17.7.

So the strikeout rate really went down.

The walk rate also was the highest it's been since 2022.

Yeah, with the injury and, it's a real thing, right?

Like would, if this was bothering him and he just didn't feel right the whole year, I'm not necessarily saying that you can forgive him, right?

Because the Pirates desperately could have used a healthy and productive Mitch Keller this year.

But I think Mitch Keller has shown over the course of a sustained period of time, and we're talking four years now, right?

you look at his numbers, and from 2022 to 2025, that's a four-year span, he was a pretty good starting pitcher, right?

He's ranging from pretty good to average.

And when you're an average starting pitcher in terms of results and you're throwing 175-plus innings, that's an extremely valuable pitcher to any team over the course of a 162-game season.

So I guess my question to you guys, again, is does 2026 change the way you view Mitch Keller?

Because for me, I'm willing to chalk it up as just like a one-year thing, right?

Now, if he does get in 2027, then my opinion of Mitch Keller changes a lot.

But I think right now, if you're trying to reasonably project what a 2027 season looks like for Mitch Keller, I think you have to more so look at the four, the overall body of work.

What were the last five years like for Mitch Keller?

And the last five years of Mitch Keller have shown you that he can pitch a lot of innings.

He can be average, an average starting pitcher, ERA in the low fours.

And so I think if you're looking to see, like, what can he provide you in 2027, like, that's my expectation.

I don't think my expectation on who Mitch Keller is as a pitcher has changed much just because of last year.

So I'd like to say, I'd like your thoughts on there.

Like, do you view Mitch Keller any different right now than you did at the beginning of the season?

Like, does that 5.29 ERA over 115 innings in a season where he ended on the IL, is he a different guy now than he was in previous years?

So a couple comments here.

Phoenix Wayne, what would the Brewers do with Keller?

That's a good question because we're going to get to later in the show, like, what would the Brewers do with Brandon Lowe?

What would the Brewers do with Keller?

Man, I don't know.

I'll say this.

The Brewers may have never extended Keller to begin with.

You look at this Brewers team right now and how it's built.

None of these starting pitchers are guys that are, how old is Mitch Keller now?

30 years old.

You look at this Milwaukee Brewers staff, 24-year-old Misiorowski, 24-year-old Henderson, 27-year-old Gasser.

Yeah.

I don't know if the Brewers extend Mitch Keller to begin with.

the one guy on this team that they had who they extended was Brandon Woodruff, right?

And he was just hurt pretty much the entire year.

He only started nine games this season.

Had some pretty good results.

But they also, that wasn't really a long-term deal either.

They've been giving him these one-year deals, the last couple seasons.

he had that 2024 year where he was hurt.

They signed him to a two-year deal.

2026 comes back on that one-year deal.

He was productive when he was healthy, but he's only given them, what, 32 starts over the last four seasons?

So he hasn't really given them a whole lot of value.

So, yeah, I think that – I don't know if the Brewers would still be – I don't know if the Brewers would still have Keller.

I think the Brewers maybe would have traded Mitch Keller four years ago.

Yellowbeard says, I really don't know what you'd do with Keller.

Salary dump for lottery tickets.

Bucko Mike, Keller is a salary dump.

He also says, I think his body is starting to break down.

Yellowbeard, if he hasn't made the jump to all-star selection by age 29 to 30, he likely will never get it.

Now, to be completely fair to Mitch Keller, he was an all-star, right?

He did make an all-star.

He did make one all-star game in – what year was that he made the all-star game?

2023.

he was a three-war pitcher that year, went 13-9, 4.21 ERA.

Had a hell of a first start to that season.

So, like, he did make one all-star game, which is saying something.

Yeah, Ethan says, Woodruff and Burns.

Burns, they traded, right?

Burns, they traded.

Woodruff, they extended.

So – but Woodruff was a little bit different situation where he got hurt his final year going into free agency.

And the Brewers were able to say, you know what, now that you're hurt, you're about to be a free agent, let's sign you to a two-year deal.

We'll give you a two-year deal and pay you while you're hurt, if you come back.

So, they got a pretty good deal on him on that two-year deal, but he just never really came back and pitched a lot of innings.

So, yeah.

So, like I said, for me, my expectation with Keller is I fully expect him to be the guy he was in 2025 and 2024 and 2023.

I don't think he's someone who's going to give you, maybe that 2022 season that he had where he hit a 3.9 ERA.

Like, I'm not expecting that from Keller anymore.

But I think it's safe to expect, like, a 4.2, 4.3 ERA out of Mitch Keller and someone who can go 30-plus games in a year.

I think that's a reasonable expectation.

So, there is some concern here with the lack of strikeout rate.

And that's just something that's been dropping really for a while now.

But, like, he was still an effective pitcher in 2025.

like I said, in 2025, 4.19 ERA over 176 innings.

It's a 2.5 win pitcher.

You need those guys.

You need those guys to get through 162.

I don't really know how effective Mitch Keller would be in, like, a short postseason series.

Like, he's not my top one or two or three guy that's going out there.

But for someone to get you through 162, he just seems extremely valuable.

But, yeah, the real question right now is, like, what do you do with him?

Because you look at this rotation, and if you don't have Mitch Keller, if you trade Mitch Keller, you're looking at Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler.

Who's your number five at that point?

Is it Carmen Mlodzinski?

Is it Hunter Barco?

Is it Connor Whitgrift?

Is it Antwone Kelly or Wilber Dotel?

Like, is it one of those guys?

Do you go out there and get a fifth starter?

Like, I think if they were to trade Mitch Keller, I think you've got to go out there and get someone else who has shown that they can get batters out at the major league level as a starting pitcher.

Because right now, you only have four, let's say, four and a half guys, right?

Let's count Carmen Mlodzinski as that fourth and a half guy that has shown he can start, right?

Like, he's, you can live with Carmen Mlodzinski as your fifth starter, but it's not, like, the ideal situation for him.

Like, Connor Mlodzinski is obviously at his best in that multi-inning back end of your bullpen role where if you need somebody to come on and get three outs or six outs or whatever it may be, in a big spot, it's him.

Like, that is the best spot for Mlodzinski.

And without Keller, Mlodzinski becomes your fifth starter.

Like, in my opinion, he's the fifth best starter in this organization right now if you were to get rid of Mitch Keller.

So, there's not a ton of depth there.

Like I said, there's depth, but it's just, it's very unproven depth.

if you want to count Barco and Connor Wietgrefe and Dotel and Kelly, like, you can count those guys.

It's just, you've no idea what to expect out of those people when you have them start a Major League Baseball game.

So, yeah, what do you do with him?

What do you do with him?

Do you hold on to him?

he is making, next year, going to some payroll numbers here, right?

Mitch Keller next year is making $18.4 million.

We already talked about the rotation.

$18.4 million is a very reasonable amount of money to pay a starting pitcher who is going to give you two to three war and have a low ERA, a low fours ERA and 175 innings.

That's a perfectly reasonable amount of money to pay.

Any team would pay that for a guy like that.

Any team, right?

For the Pirates, though, it's a lot of money.

It's a lot of money to spend on a starting pitcher that isn't your number one, not your number two, probably not your number three.

He's at best your number four and maybe your number five.

So, you look at this team and you just think, okay, from a budget standpoint, knowing how the Pirates survive and go through these decisions from a budget standpoint,

how can they afford to pay a number four or number five starter over $18 million?

And would that money do more good for them if it were allocated differently?

I think that's the question because I don't think the question is whether or not Mitch Keller is worth the money.

I think Mitch Keller is worth the money.

My expectation of Keller is that low fours ERA, 30-plus starts.

That's worth what he's getting paid.

The question is for a team that has these budget restraints like the Pirates, is the best value of $18 million being spent on Mitch Keller?

So, a couple comments here.

Bucko Mike says, if Keller can give you four ERA in 160 innings, it's a win in the playoffs.

Keller is a bulk guy.

Phoenix Wayne, have to get a lefty one way or another.

And I agree with Wayne there.

went through on NS9 Live a couple weeks ago about how the league in general is just not very good at hitting left-handed pitchers.

So, if you can tap into that and get a left-handed starter who, is pretty decent at least, then you can take advantage of that.

Take advantage of PNC Park as well.

And the yellow beard says, Mlodzinski's a whole other problem.

Yeah, I agree there.

So, I don't know.

I like Mitch Keller a lot.

One of my favorite players on the team.

But if, like, you're asking me right now how to best construct the 2027 Pirates, I got to move him.

I got to move him.

And you have to hope that a team views him the way that he's pitched over the last five seasons and not just the way he pitched last year.

Because the thing about moving Mitch Keller right now is you are selling him at his lowest value, right?

He's got 28, 29 million.

It's about $29 million left on his contract over a course of two years.

If you think he's a five-plus ERA pitcher, right, and that's how you're viewing him, there's not a lot of value there.

If you think he's a low four ERA pitcher, then, yeah.

Like, that's worth it.

There's not a ton of surplus value there.

It's more like it's more in line with just who he is as a starting pitcher.

But I think if you're trading Keller right now, you're not getting anything for him in return, right?

Like, it is a pure salary dump at that point.

Pure salary dump.

You're seeing if somebody will take that remaining $29 million off your hand.

Don't expect to get anything in return at all.

If anything, you may have to attach something to Keller to get rid of the whole amount.

Alex, in his mailbag episode on Friday, said that he doesn't think that will happen.

And I don't know.

I'm in the camp where, like I said, if you look at this team going into next year, you could use another $18.5 million to spend.

And if that takes attaching a low-level prospect who's not even really in your top 30, but just like a guy for some team to take Keller off your hands, I don't know.

I might have to do it.

I might have to do it.

Just because, like I said, that $18.5 million, I think if you're the Pirates, you can get more value out of it.

Now, you've got to be good with the moves, right?

You've got to be smart about it.

But I think you can get more value out of it.

I think Keller's worth it.

I think Keller's worth every dollar of that deal.

But when you're the Pirates, you're looking for, how can I make this tilt a little bit?

In my favor.

And I think the best way to do that is to trade Mitch Keller, unfortunately.

Let's see here.

Yellowbeard says $18 million.

Just feels like a lot for Keller.

Also adds, what's the extent of his injury?

Will he be ready for the spring?

I never even looked due to my overall disinterest in Mitch at this point.

Yeah, I talked a little bit about that over in the beginning of the show, but Aiden wrote an article that says, yeah, like Keller's going to go through just a regular normal offseason.

So, you should be good.

You should be good.

Bucko Kamis says, only if the $18 million cleared up will guarantee Brandon Lowe back is when he would do it.

Which is our next topic.

So, great segue.

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And, yeah.

But let's shift gears here.

Bucko Commish ended the last segment with, only if the $18 million cleared up will guarantee Brandon Lowe back, I would do it.

So, let's talk about Brandon Lowe.

Qualifying offer this year is $23.15 million.

In my opinion, that's probably the easiest decision Ben Cherington has to make at this point of time is offering him that qualifying offer.

Obviously, we all know the offensive season that Brandon Lowe had.

Gold glove finalists put up almost five war on the year.

with the qualifying offer, there's basically, one of, one of two things happens, right?

It's $23.15 million one year, and Brandon Lowe accepts it, right?

I don't think that's going to happen, but that's certainly something that could happen.

And if that happens, is anybody going to be upset about it?

I don't think so, right?

Like, that's a lot of money for the Pirates to spend.

It's $23.15 million on one player.

But also, it's a one-year deal.

There's, like, no risk that comes with that.

Like, we always say, like, there's no such thing as a bad one-year deal, unless it's a Marcell Ozuna contract, apparently.

But, $23.15 million one year.

There's no long-term risk.

You just retained one of the most important players on your roster from this year.

I think everybody is quite happy with that result.

I think that's the most unlikely result, though.

I think the result is that Brandon Lowe rejects the qualifying offer, which is fine, right?

This is Brandon Lowe's one chance that he's probably going to get to cash in on a long-term deal that pays a significant amount of money.

He's 32 years old, just turned 32 three months ago.

So, like, he's going to be playing most of the 2027 season at 32 years old.

But, again, coming off a huge year, from a war standpoint, it was his best year of his entire career.

Like, he picked the right year to have the best year of his career.

And so he's heading into free agency.

I expect him to reject that qualifying offer, which means two things.

One, the Pirates don't have to stop negotiating with Brandon Lowe, right?

Like, they can issue him the qualifying offer.

He can decline it and then say, okay, let's talk about a long-term deal then, right?

If the one-year $23 million isn't going to cut it, let's talk about a multi-year deal.

If he leaves and he goes somewhere else, then you've at least positioned yourself to, receive some draft compensation for losing Brandon Lowe.

I don't think the Pirates should receive any accolades or it's not an accomplishment to offer somebody a qualifying offer.

I don't think we've offered anybody a qualifying offer since Russell Martin in 20, in the offseason after 2014.

So it's been a bit.

It's been a bit since the Pirates have had a free agent of this caliber.

Martin obviously declined that deal.

Signed with the Blue Jays.

Brandon Lowe is probably going to decline this and likely sign somewhere else, right?

Like, I think right now, you look at the free agent market, Brandon Lowe's coming off his best season ever.

He's a lefty power bat.

There's going to be a lot of teams that are super interested in Brandon Lowe, and I don't see the Pirates.

I don't see the Pirates beating some of those teams.

I just don't.

This past offseason, there was a lot of, they went after Kyle Schwarber, right?

They went after Okamoto.

They went after all these guys.

They didn't ultimately sign anybody, right?

Except O'Hearn.

That was the early signing.

So there's no accomplishment here for offering Brandon Lowe a strong deal.

Like, if your goal is to bring Brandon Lowe back, you've got to bring him back.

And if you don't, you failed, right?

They don't get any credit for saying, hey, we offered him $70 million over three years, but darn it, the Yankees gave him a four-year deal.

That was worth $100 million.

So we just couldn't do that.

But I guess my question, and this is the broader topic, going back to the beginning of the show, someone said, what would the Brewers do with Ms. Keller?

I'm going to ask you, what would the Brewers do with Brandon Lowe?

Because if after watching this year or after watching this last decade, the topic is or the statement is, the Pirates need to act more like the Brewers, or the Pirates need to act more like the Rays.

My question to you is, would either of those two teams sign Brandon Lowe?

Would either of those two teams sign 32-year-old Brandon Lowe?

That's my question to you.

One of those two teams just traded away Brandon Lowe.

They had him.

They actually had Brandon Lowe on their team, and they traded him.

I'm going to run a couple numbers by you, because I was curious about this heading into this show.

I was curious when the last time either the Milwaukee Brewers or the Tampa Bay Rays have signed a 32-year-old free agent for three or more years.

Do this exercise in your head.

When was the last time the Brewers and the Rays signed a 32-year-old free agent to a three-year deal or more?

Try to think of an example.

Just come up with one guy and see if you can think of one.

Because I bet you can't.

Because you know how long it's been since either of these teams have done something like this?

For the Milwaukee Brewers, you got to go back.

And this is one, but they signed a – Josh Lindblom, they signed.

I think he was coming back from the KBO.

They signed him to a three-year, $9 million deal in 2019.

It was seven years ago.

If you go back, you'll get a little bit further and say, hey, when was the last time the Brewers signed somebody to a three-year deal?

But it was $10 million or more.

Like just a three-year, $30 million deal.

When was the last time?

It was 2013.

It was 34-year-old Kyle Loesch, starting pitcher, 2013.

It was 13 years ago.

Last time they did it with a hitter, Bucko Kamish, you just nailed it.

It was Aramis Ramirez in 2011.

The last time the Brewers signed a 32-year-old hitter to a three-year deal was Aramis Ramirez in 2011.

Tampa Bay Rays, you got to go back even farther.

Last time they signed a 32-year-old free agent to a three-year contract, 1999.

It was Greg Vaughn.

They signed to a four-year, $34 million deal.

34-year-old Greg Vaughn.

These are deals that just like neither of these teams would, neither of these teams, right, the Brewers or the Rays, would sign Brandon Lowe.

So my question to you is, should the Pirates operate like the Brewers or the Rays?

Because apparently they wouldn't do it.

The Rays would say, you know what?

Thank you for your year.

We're going to take that draft pick that's going to come along with you.

We're going to let some other team pay you that money.

We're going to go spend it somewhere else.

Makes you think, right?

Because as a fan of the Pirates and looking and seeing at what Brandon Lowe's done over the last year, I want Brandon Lowe back.

Like, the dude was awesome.

It was the best year that I've ever seen a Pirates second baseman put up.

His swing is just perfect for PNC Park, right?

He's got that pull, heavy, fly ball, hitting, launch angle, shot.

Like, it's just, it's a perfect swing for this ballpark.

And if he's playing the defense like he was, and if he's healthy like he was, he's a damn good baseball player.

And he's someone who makes your team a lot better.

But guess what?

The two teams that you're trying to emulate wouldn't sign him.

So does that make you think at all?

Does that make you go, you know what?

If the Rays and Brewers wouldn't do it, maybe the Pirates shouldn't too.

Or do you go, you know what, the Rays and the Brewers wouldn't, and this is the argument I'm about to make.

The Rays and the Brewers don't make deals like that because the Rays and the Brewers, when they have a Brandon Lowe type guy that they're looking at, they don't have to go out there and get a 32-year-old free agent, right?

Because they've got a Brice Turang waiting in the wings.

They've got a, if you're the Rays, they've got somebody, right, who can play the position, and they can do it cheap, and they can do it well, right?

The Pirates don't have that guy.

Like, if the Pirates were to lose Brandon Lowe, Nick Gonzales is your second baseman.

And, I don't trust Nick Gonzales to, Nick Gonzales isn't going to replace Brandon Lowe, right?

Like, Brandon, I think Nick Gonzales can be a solid two-to-three-war second baseman.

I think he's perfectly capable of doing something like that.

But the Pirates don't have a Brandon Lowe replacement.

They don't.

Like, he doesn't exist anywhere in their organization right now.

Doesn't exist.

So when you look and you say, you know what, the Rays wouldn't do this, the Brewers wouldn't do this, well, it's because they don't have to.

They don't have to.

They got other guys.

Pirates don't have other guys.

So, I guess to go back to the original point, yes, your ultimate goal as a franchise needs to be, I gotta figure out a way to operate like the Brewers and the Rays.

But right now, from a player development standpoint, from a scouting standpoint, from just an overall talent standpoint, you aren't there.

So, you can't do exactly what they would do all the time.

And in this case, the Rays and the Brewers would not sign Brandon Lowe.

But you're not the Rays and the Brewers.

You don't have a Brandon Lowe replacement.

So, I think you gotta go, you gotta do everything you can.

You gotta do everything possible to bring him back.

And I think someone out there is gonna, this is where it's gonna start getting a little tricky here, is I think someone out there is gonna give Brandon Lowe a four-year deal.

And that's pushing it.

Like, I'm not gonna lie, that is pushing it for a guy who has shown time and time and time again that he can't play a full season.

Last year was the first time Brandon Lowe played 150 games in his entire career.

31 years old, it was the first time in his career he played 150 games.

So, you sign him to a four-year deal and it's risky.

Like, I'm not saying it's not risky.

Like, it's possible he can go out there and play four years and never play more than 110 games in a season.

Like, that could happen, right?

But I think if you're the Pirates right now, I think it was, Alex used this line on Friday, too.

Like, a four-year deal for Brandon Lowe, maybe in 2030, doesn't look that great.

Like, maybe he's a DH only at that point.

And you're paying a DH only a lot of money.

But at this point, you've got Paul Skenes, you've got Konnor Griffin, you've got Oneil Cruz.

You've got to do everything you can to win in 2027.

And if the contract makes sense for 2027, 2030, Brandon Lowe, is a problem for the 2030 Pirates.

Let the 2030 Pirates handle it, right?

We need the 2027 Pirates to win as many games as possible.

And I think the best way for that to happen is to figure out a way to bring Brandon Lowe back.

A few comments here.

Just on Brandon Lowe, Yellow Beard.

He's got enough history that they should feel good about offering three years $25 million per.

And I agree with that.

As I said, going back to the end of that, I think someone's going to toss them a fourth year there.

And if you're the Pirates and you want them, you're going to have to figure out a way to beat them.

Bucko Commission is going to be about the term.

He's 32 years old and getting his first paint.

Let's see what Bob Nutting can handle.

Yellow Beard says they'll just trade the draft pick for another hope and a prayer.

Yeah, those compensation picks.

You never know.

Bucko Mike says Brandon Lowe isn't taking three for 75.

He's probably looking for 4-120.

I think 4-120 is probably pushing it, but I think 4-100 is definitely in play.

I could see a team who really likes him and desperately needs him offering him that.

Bucko Commish.

Neither the Brewers nor the Rays would sign him.

Yellow Beard.

Neither of them would have to sign him.

They make Brandon Lowe's from scratch.

And that goes back to what I said before is like these teams don't operate like this because they don't have to.

They don't have to operate like this.

They don't have to go out there and sign 32-year-old free agents because they've been manufacturing these guys.

Like they don't need to go out there and spend $100 million on a free agent like that.

Wayne says fire Cherington and hire the assistant GM at Tampa Bay or Milwaukee.

Hey, I don't hate that idea.

Bucko Commish.

No, they don't have the infrastructure that they have to not have to sign them.

Ray still had plenty of offense without Brandon Lowe.

Brewers develop serviceable middle infield bats.

The Pirates need him.

Yep.

So I think we're all in agreement here.

Yellowbeard says, I think he knows his swing works here.

Bucko Commish.

He needs to be a pirate.

Phoenix Wayne.

The PNC Park of the equation sways me.

Yellowbeard.

If only Nick Gonzales could play second base the way Rafael Belliard played shortstop, he would make sense.

Keith says, have to sign Brandon Lowe.

Yeah, I think everyone's along the same lines here where like you want to get to the point.

Where you can be these guys, but you're just not there yet.

You're not there.

And the best way for you to win in 2027 is to bring Brandon Lowe back.

So I think we, I think we made our point, but yeah, it's one of those topics where you want to be the brewers.

You want to be the raise, but in this situation, I don't think you can be, I just don't think you can be, some quick hitters before we, before we wrap things up.

I appreciate you guys being active this morning.

I don't know.

DiNardo still hasn't texted me.

It's now almost 8 a.m.

He, I hope he's, I hope, I hope he made it back.

Okay.

Like, I don't know.

He hasn't said a word.

He hasn't said a word.

I haven't talked to DiNardo since leaving the, leaving Arizona.

So who knows what's going on with him?

all right.

Yeah.

World series.

Milwaukee's up to nothing on Tampa Bay.

game three is tonight.

my original pick was raised in seven.

I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can, if I can stick by that.

the brewers just have this, they just seem to be the team of destiny right now.

Like I thought they went, they went down for nothing on Saturday and it was like, okay, finally, like the brewers are going to lose.

The rays are going to tie things up.

They're going to go back to, they're going to go back to St. Petersburg and they're going to have, their chance to make some noise in this series.

And then Milwaukee just came storming back.

And I think that's just, God, their bullpen is so damn good.

The bullpen is so good.

And so when they get down like that, they're able to just go to whoever and keep you where you're at.

they got down for nothing early and then they were just like, you know what?

We're done giving up runs.

That's it.

No more for you.

And it allowed them time to scratch and claw and get back into the game.

So, I don't know.

I don't think this world series is over by any means.

the Tampa Bay is heading home.

They've got, they've got some games at home.

So, they got to take care of business at home, but it's looking like Milwaukee is going to win their first world series.

they've got, they've got five games now to win three of them.

They got to win three out of five at this point.

No, two out of five.

Sorry.

Two out of five.

They went two out of five.

I don't think it's over, but it's getting pretty darn close.

if you haven't yet, we had a ton of Arizona fall league coverage.

So make sure you check out our recaps.

we had a recap of the game on Thursday, had a recap of the triple header on Saturday, really fun times down there.

Like we saw some really cool baseball.

Wyatt Sanford had a huge game Thursday.

So we talked about that on our first recap that we did, on Saturday, Gianni Severino with a walk-off base hit an extra inning.

So it was, we caught some really fun baseball games while we were down there.

Shout out to Phoenix Wayne in the comments.

he watched a couple of games with us, watched some innings with us at, while we were down there.

so it was nice to, nice to see him again, but yeah, make sure you check out all of our Arizona fall league stuff.

If you haven't, NS9 live we did from the Airbnb, there were some comments in there.

We couldn't really, we couldn't really address the comments during NS9 live because, the computer was so far away.

We didn't really get a chance to see them, but, yeah, there were no, there were no chairs in that Airbnb.

We're in the Airbnb and we're like, where are we going to do this podcast from?

And it's like, well, the best place to do it is at this kitchen Island, but there's no chairs here.

So we had to stand the whole time.

So, is what it is.

It was either that or just like laying on the sofa and then it was like, yeah, we don't want to do that.

but yeah, make sure you check out everything from last week.

A lot of good stuff.

this week coming up, we have again, obviously Bucco Brew, that you're watching right now.

Offbeat, Alex just dropped a new episode this morning.

Alex also did a couple of offbeat, episodes, one with Wyatt Sanford, one with Easton Carmichael.

While we were down there in Arizona.

So those will also be out this week.

and then, trying to think what else.

Oh, we interviewed, Eric Longenhagen from fan graphs.

We interviewed Sam Dykstra from MLB pipeline.

So those will also be out this week.

So, make sure to talk more about just the overall pirates farm system as a whole with those guys.

So make sure you check them out.

Really good stuff coming to you this week that we were able to record, in Arizona, last week.

So appreciate all of you guys for hanging in there.

We just did a 50 minute show solo, whatever.

DiNardo, hopefully you got a good, hopefully you got a good night's sleep, DiNardo.

Hopefully you got your beauty rest.

You got to sleep in a little bit.

like Bucko Mike says, catching up on house chores, whatever it is that you're doing right now.

we did this, we did this thing solo, so appreciate y'all in the comments for being very interactive throughout the show.

You guys are awesome.

Make sure you like the video subscribe.

If you haven't, if you're listening on the podcast, sorry, you just had to listen to me talk for 50 minutes and there was no back and forth, but I'd say the shout out to the commenters, you guys, you guys carry this one.

So, yeah, but like I said, if you're, if you're watching this after the fact, leave a comment.

I'm really interested in hearing, your thoughts on really just what needs to be done with Mitch Keller.

And yeah, like I said, the Brandon Lowe thing is fun because it's a fun thought exercise because like the Brewers and the Rays wouldn't sign them.

They wouldn't.

They've shown time and time again that they wouldn't sign them.

But do you, do you say, you know what, screw that.

We need him.

We aren't the Brewers and the Rays.

We need Brandon Lowe.

So make sure, make sure you leave a comment in there.

Appreciate you guys.

yeah, let's see.

FanDuel.

I gotta imagine.

let me see if I can find some World Series odds before we get out of here.

But I gotta imagine the Milwaukee Brewers are now heavy World Series favorites.

tonight, the Rays are favored tonight.

They're minus one 20.

Freddie Peralta on the mound facing Robert Gasser.

So Rays are favored tonight on FanDuel.

they need to win.

They need to win desperately.

So that's all I got for you guys.

Let's go Bucs.

Like I said, offbeat tomorrow.

and then we'll drop our, one of our, interviews tomorrow as well.

So plenty of content coming your way this week.

But, thanks to Defer coffee and tea for sponsoring the show.

and yeah, this was North shore nine presented by FanDuel.

Peace out.

We'll see you later.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North shore nine.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Bye.