John Antonoff / For the Sun-Times
MESA, Ariz. – 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.
“There 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,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said in a conversation with the Sun-Times.