Jun 26, 2026 By Eleanor Bailey 9 min read

Graham Keen dismisses talk about being the next MLB prospect out of Mt. Lebanon.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he cautioned.

With humility, he reminds prognosticators that he is still just an 18-year-old that loves to play the game and is still a fan.

“I definitely have favorite players. A list that I root for,” he said.

While Keen follows Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes and Los Angeles Dodger superstar Shohei Ontani as well as Baltimore Orioles Jackson Holliday, a pitcher, and Brandon Young, an infielder, Mt. Lebanon natives like David Shields and current Pirates manager Don Kelly rank at the top.

“He’s a Lebo guy so it’s easy to root for him,” Keen said of Kelly.

Keen knows Kelly because he trains with his son, Brett, at Battle Ground Baseball Group, a 20,000-square foot state of the art facility located just outside of Mars.

“His son’s a great kid and they’re a great family,” Keen said.

Keen has a similar opinion of Shields, whom he appears to be following in his footsteps.

“He’s one of my guys,” Keen said. “It’s kind of weird knowing I played with him and he’s working his way towards the big leagues.”

In 2024, Shields was selected by the Kansas City Royals as the 41st overall pick in the second round of the MLB amateur draft out of Mt. Lebanon. He’s pitching for the franchise’s High-A affiliate club, the Quad Cities River Bandits in Davenport, Iowa.

Keen, like Shields, was recently named the 2026 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year. Shields earned the distinction in 2024.

“David was the first one to text and congratulate me,” Keen said. “He was fired up that I won it. It was awesome. A really cool thing.”

An even more interesting fact was Keen received notice of his distinction while playing in a tournament in Florida. During the five-day event in West Palm, Keen and his teammates stayed in a property recently purchased by Shields.

“He let us live in his place,” Keen said. “But that’s David. He was always such a great teammate.”

Shields’s empathy “stuck” with Keen the most when he was a freshman breaking into Mt. Lebanon’s starting line-up. The Blue Devils won the WPIAL championship that spring and finished runner-up in the PIAA. The following year, Lebo was the WPIAL runner-up.

“My first taste of high school sports and David was there. He included me. I’ve learned so much from him in all aspects of the game and life. From a physical standpoint, he plays the game relaxed and in control. Emotionally, he picked guys up. Socially, he included everybody. We were a team.”

For Keen, that fact played a critical role in his development. He noted that this year’s Mt. Lebanon baseball team also had a freshman starter. James Golen batted .395 with two homers, 11 runs scored and 9 RBI.

“His dad would come to pick him up after practice and we told him that he didn’t have to do that. We’d take him home. That’s what the guys did for me when I was a freshman and when we won all those games and a WPIAL championship.

“So I try to keep the same principles. To build a great culture and program, what it comes down to at the end of the day, is being a great teammate,” Keen said. “My teammates are my brothers.”

Literally. For siblings, Keen only has sisters, three of them. Maiti is an engineer, living and working in California. Mara is a kindergarten teacher. Leah is pursuing a bio-medical engineering bachelor’s and master’s degree from Drexel University.

“They are rock stars to me but they were tough on me. Mara was a super smarty pants. She keeps me grounded.”

So do Keen’s parents. His mother, Tricia, ran track at Butler High School and Duquesne University. His father, David, was a long distance runner at Florida State.

“I wish he gave me a little bit of his speed,” Keen said.

“They’re super great parents,” he added. “A lot of times you see youth parents really pushing their kids but with mine it’s low pressure.”

At age 8, Keen experimented with a variety of sports. He played basketball, soccer and lacrosse. “I even swam a little,” Keen added. “I tried everything except football because my mom didn’t want me to get hit. I settled into baseball because I loved it.”

The mentality of the game attracted Keen’s attention.

“Baseball is a grueling, tough sport. There is a lot of struggle and the best only succeed 30 percent of the time. Nowhere can you fail as much and still be a world class player.

“There’s so much beauty working through the struggles. Baseball requires so much discipline and if you stay mentally positive and trust your ability then you’ll be a good player.”

Keen has developed into a better than good player. He’s the best player in the state as determined by Gatorade and bestowing upon him Player of the Year accolades, the same honor Shields and Mt. Lebanon product Josh Wilson did before being drafted. Wilson was selected by the Florida Marlins in the third round of the MLB amateur draft.

Keen noted that there were a lot of deserving players in the state and that a number of players from western Pennsylvania such as Franklin Regional’s Luke Williams, who could get drafted this summer, Butler pitchers Kyle Casteel and Nolan Stefaniak and Fort Cherry’s Colton Temple could have won the award.

“I’m super thrilled to win the award,” Keen said of the Gatorade accolade. “It’s super, super awesome and it means a lot. It’s a tribute to my teammates, who helped me get this, and it’s a reward for all the hard work I’ve put into this.”

While a great deal of Keen’s work has been physical, working out at Battle Ground and playing with USA Prime on the summer circuit out of Michigan, his mental preparation has taken Keen to the next level. In addition to keeping ties with Shields, Keen works with Sean Casey

A veteran of 12 MLB seasons, eight with the Cincinnati Reds, Casey only had high praise for Keen.

“An unbelievable talent but an even better human being,” Casey said. “There’s humble and then there’s Graham Keen.

“This kid will play in the big leagues one day,” Casey predicted. “Not because his size helps him a lot, or pitching comes easy to him or he hits the ball well but he’s a student of the game. Very smart. Tough and resilient and he has the right mind set.

“Graham has a passion for the game and his craft. He’s such a hard worker. A real joy to work with. But he’s also a leader of men. He has a passion for people as well. A natural-born leader.”

For the Blue Devils, Keen indeed led.

A 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher, he posted a 7-1 record with a 0.88 earned-run average. He struck out 71 batters while walking just 13 in 55 2/3 innings.

Ranked as the nation’s No. 10 recruit in the Class of 2027 by Prep Baseball Report, Keen also was strong at the plate with a .417 batting average with four home runs, 14 RBIs, 21 runs scored and a .717 slugging percentage. He smacked four doubles, four homers and a triple. With 20 walks, his on-base percentage swelled to .573.

When he was not on the mound, Keen started in center field for the Blue Devils, who posted a 13-8 overall record and reached the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. Mt. Lebanon lost to Butler, 3-2, in eight innings.

Gatorade Player of the Year celebrates the nation’s best high school athletes for their excellence in sport, academics and community. Keen also maintained a 4.10 GPA in the classroom.

“Graham had an outstanding season for us pitching, having the difficult job of pitching the 3rd game of the series, and he always responded for us on the mound,” said Lebo manager Patt McCloskey.

“As an offensive player, he was the most important part of our lineup, and his overall stats,” said McCloskey, who also pointed out that Keen’s on-base and slugging percentages objectively rank as the second best offensive season in the Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitution era that started 2012. Keen is only behind Ian Happ, who plays for the Chicago Cubs.

“Graham is an outstanding teammate and leader,” McCloskey continued. “I’m grateful he will be back for one more year.”

The spring of 2027 could shape up to be one similar to one McCloskey experienced when coaching Shields before he was drafted. In the past few weeks, multiple MLB scouts have contacted McCloskey regarding Keen.

“They told me that they would be coming,” he said. “Based upon that, I infer that Graham will be considerably scouted. He’s on the most high profile amateur circuit this summer, so I’m sure he’ll have a lot of opportunities to impress Major League scouts prior to our high school season.

“It’s not my place to talk about the next level though,” he added. “I really don’t know how to project if someone is a pro prospect.”

Keen, however, is a NCAA Division I recruit. He committed to Vanderbilt University where he will be utilized as a pitcher and a third baseman.

“First and foremost, Vanderbilt is an unbelievable academic school and they have an incredible baseball program. It was the perfect blend of everything. It had everything that I was looking for,” said Keen, who will major in business.”

While he anticipates earning a degree in business, Keen hopes to lead the Commodores to a conference title as well as a NCAA championship.

“I want to become the best student and athlete I can be. I want to excel at both. Obviously, I will get a phenomenal degree but I also want to help my team win.”

Time will tell what position Keen ends up playing with the Commodores and beyond in baseball.

“I love playing the field and pitching. I definitely love hitting too. It’s my first love,” Keen said. “I’ll do what I can for as long as I can. I’ll ride it out and see where the wind takes me. I think the game will determine that . All I can do is take it one game at a time, one step at a time, and let things figure themselves out.”