Nathan Keith:
While every great team needs its star players, it also needs a few of those players that can be plugged into the lineup every day and put up solid numbers on a consistent basis. And sometimes, you look up at one of those players and realize, "Hey, this guy was pretty good. Maybe even a Hall of Famer." Nathan Keith was one of those players. Keith was Pittsburgh's starting right-fielder from the middle teen years to the very early 30's. And while he wasn't going to win any Silver Sluggers, he
was a 10 time All Star who won a batting title.
Keith was the kind of player who did a little bit of everything. He was a good hitter for average(.312 for his career and a batting title in 2016), a line drive hitter who hit a good number of doubles(he had one 40 double season), a good enough runner to turn some of those doubles into triples(he led the league in triples four times), a solid, if unspectacular, HR threat(over 200 career longballs), a possessor of a solid batting eye(he drew around 60 walks per season and had a .380 career OBP), and a capable defensive player in RF. And he was durable, to boot. He had 10 seasons of at least 150 games played, and was rarely injured.
In addition to that, Keith was an excellent postseason performer. Micheal Bruce's retirement following the 2022 season left Keith (then 30 years old) and the other younger veterans on the team as the team leaders. Keith stepped forward in the 2023 postseason as he led the team in AVG, hits, RBI, and R in the playoffs. In the first three games of the World Series against Nashville that year, Keith was hitless, and the Pirates trailed 2 games to 1. But in Game 3, Keith had a hit and a walk, and scored 2 runs in the Pittsburgh's 6-3 victory. In Game 4, Keith drove in a pair of runs in a 4-1 Pittsburgh victory. In what would be the deciding game, Nashville grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. But the veteran Keith drove in a run of his own in the bottom of the first, and with the game tied at 2 in the 8th inning, Keith drove in a second run to briefly give the Pirates the lead. That lead would be blown in the ninth inning, but Pittsburgh recovered to win 5-4, taking the series in 6 games. Unfortunately for Keith, that would be the last championship of his career. The Pirates lost the 2025 Series in a rematch against Nashville, and wouldn't reach the World Series again until Keith's final season in 2032. By that point, however, Keith was no longer an effective player, and he was not on the postseason roster. Not that it mattered; they lost that Series, too.
Keith's stats:
Code:
Career Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Teams
2013 10 23 7 2 0 0 1 5 4 6 1 0 .304 .407 .391 .799 PIT
2014 98 221 66 17 3 4 23 25 16 57 2 2 .299 .346 .457 .803 PIT
2015 104 260 89 15 2 8 42 45 19 63 5 3 .342 .387 .508 .895 PIT
2016 141 518 178 18 4 11 72 76 42 81 12 12 .344 .393 .458 .850 PIT,NL
2017 126 432 133 23 4 10 58 73 48 76 24 13 .308 .377 .449 .826 PIT
2018 156 541 163 42 6 11 78 98 82 80 25 14 .301 .393 .462 .855 PIT,NL
2019 153 544 164 26 9 15 70 90 71 79 16 25 .301 .382 .465 .847 PIT,NL
2020 144 503 137 27 2 12 65 69 66 86 7 9 .272 .357 .406 .762 PIT
2021 155 574 174 32 9 19 117 95 68 86 3 8 .303 .377 .490 .866 PIT,NL
2022 152 544 168 26 11 18 100 92 56 74 5 6 .309 .373 .496 .870 PIT,NL
2023 142 502 148 22 7 16 83 69 58 71 2 6 .295 .368 .462 .830 PIT
2024 154 516 154 37 5 6 75 77 61 72 5 6 .298 .373 .424 .797 PIT,NL
2025 153 502 149 18 8 11 77 88 67 70 10 5 .297 .380 .430 .810 PIT
2026 153 543 182 33 7 14 97 95 50 85 6 9 .335 .391 .499 .890 PIT,NL
2027 153 571 180 36 9 20 129 92 61 75 3 6 .315 .381 .515 .896 PIT,NL
2028 151 524 178 28 5 18 113 88 47 70 2 6 .340 .394 .515 .909 PIT
2029 151 531 177 20 10 20 96 103 65 71 2 4 .333 .406 .522 .928 PIT,NL
2030 145 513 170 21 2 15 87 90 46 63 3 5 .331 .386 .468 .854 PIT,NL
2031 46 118 29 5 0 0 8 12 5 17 0 0 .246 .276 .288 .565 PIT
2032 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 .500 .667 .500 1.167 PIT
Total 2488 8482 2647 448 103 228 1391 1382 933 1283 133 139 .312 .380 .470 .850
Career Minor League Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2012, AAA 137 595 184 24 1 12 67 83 40 133 16 11 .309 .351 .413 .765
2013, AAA 134 571 179 35 2 18 64 100 56 114 14 10 .313 .372 .476 .848
2032, AA 110 402 131 24 0 2 60 43 29 77 3 7 .326 .368 .400 .768
2032, AAA 7 15 4 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 0 1 .267 .267 .267 .533
Career Postseason Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2014 2 9 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 .444 .444 .667 1.111
2015 5 17 4 1 0 0 4 5 4 2 1 0 .235 .381 .294 .675
2017 10 40 15 1 3 1 10 6 3 9 0 3 .375 .419 .625 1.044
2018 14 49 15 2 2 1 6 10 6 10 2 3 .306 .382 .490 .872
2019 11 40 13 3 0 2 6 8 5 3 1 0 .325 .400 .550 .950
2020 7 26 12 1 0 0 3 2 3 2 0 2 .462 .517 .500 1.017
2021 11 42 11 2 0 1 5 5 7 11 1 1 .262 .367 .381 .748
2022 11 41 13 1 2 1 6 4 6 4 0 2 .317 .404 .512 .916
2023 12 47 18 3 2 2 10 12 5 9 1 0 .383 .442 .660 1.102
2024 5 19 5 0 0 0 3 2 1 7 0 0 .263 .300 .263 .563
2025 12 54 16 3 0 2 13 7 3 9 0 0 .296 .333 .463 .796
2026 4 16 4 2 0 0 2 1 2 2 0 0 .250 .333 .375 .708
2027 7 24 6 1 0 1 4 2 4 7 1 0 .250 .357 .417 .774
2028 7 27 5 1 0 0 3 3 0 6 0 0 .185 .185 .222 .407
2029 11 41 12 1 0 1 5 4 3 9 0 0 .293 .341 .390 .731
2030 4 14 4 0 0 0 1 2 1 5 0 0 .286 .333 .286 .619
Total 133 506 157 22 10 12 81 75 53 96 7 11 .310 .376 .464 .840
Player History
Drafted in 1st round, 4th overall pick, by Tucson in 2012...
Traded from Tucson to Pittsburgh on 7/28/2012 (Going to TUC: P J. Magers. Going to PIT: RF N. Keith, CF A. Neves)...
Had first career hit on 9/1/2013, off Justin Hudock (SD)...
Hit first career homerun on 5/24/2014, off Wilson Valencia (ROC)...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2015...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/28/2016, hitting .484 with 6 HR, 11 RBI...
Was selected to the 2016 Allstar game...
Had 21-game hitting streak snapped on 7/12/2016...
Injured on 7/19/2016 with a Bruised Ribs, out for 1-2 weeks...
Injured on 5/31/2017 with a Spasms Back, out for 4 weeks...
Was selected to the 2018 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2019 Allstar game...
Had 27-game hitting streak snapped on 8/8/2019...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2019...
Injured on 7/7/2020 with a Pulled Hamstring Muscle, out for one week...
Drove in 7 runs against Harrisburg on 4/3/2021...
Was selected to the 2021 Allstar game...
Had 22-game hitting streak snapped on 9/20/2021...
Was selected to the 2022 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2022...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2023...
Was selected to the 2024 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2026 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/21/2027, hitting .462 with 0 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/19/2027, hitting .458 with 3 HR, 16 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 6/1/2027, hitting .383 with 4 HR, 28 RBI...
Had 2000th career hit on 6/17/2027, off Lawrence Brass (HAR)...
Was selected to the 2027 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2029 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2030 Allstar game...
Signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh on 2/21/2032 to a 1-year deal worth $300,000 per year...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2033.
Batting Leader Boards Appearances
AVG
2016 - .344 - 1st
2026 - .335 - 3rd
2028 - .340 - 6th
2030 - .331 - 3rd
OBP
2016 - .393 - 9th
2018 - .393 - 9th
Hits
2021 - 174 - 10th
2026 - 182 - 4th
Doubles
2018 - 42 - 7th
Triples
2019 - 9 - 1st
2021 - 9 - 1st
2022 - 11 - 1st
2023 - 7 - 9th
2025 - 8 - 1st
2026 - 7 - 4th
2027 - 9 - 4th
2029 - 10 - 3rd
RBI
2021 - 117 - 1st
2022 - 100 - 9th
2027 - 129 - 2nd
2028 - 113 - 10th
Runs
2021 - 95 - 9th
SB
2018 - 25 - 9th