The Pittsburgh Pirates have a budding ace in their staff in Mitch Keller, and they'd like to keep it that way.

Although general manager Ben Cherington didn't have any updates Sunday about a potential new contract for Keller, he said the hurler is the kind of player the franchise wants to extend.

"We'd love for Mitch to be a Pirate for a long time," Cherington said, according to Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette.