Keelan Smithers

Keelan John Smithers

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 4", Weight 205 lb.

• School Princeton University
• High School Belmont Hill School

• Born June 24, 1994 in Framingham, MA USA

BR register page

Biographical Information

Keelan Smithers was 11-0 his last two years of high school and also played basketball. In college, he was 2-4 with a 5.98 ERA as a freshman then had a 1-7, 4.95 record as a junior. He tied for the most losses in the Ivy League. He improved to 4-1, 3.46 as a junior and was second-team All-Ivy League. He struggled as a senior (22 R, 20 ER, 18 BB in 9 1/3 IP, 0-3).

He still drew interest from MLB teams, signing with the New York Mets. He never got into a game for them, though. He stayed active with the Irish national team (his mother was from Ireland). In the 2018 C-Level European Championship, he was absolutely dominant, allowing only one hit (to Costa Kapothanasis) in a win over Greece and Pete Sikaras. He easily allowed the event's lowest average (.043, to .217 for runner-up Timo Muro.

Smithers threw another one-hit shutout, this time fanning 16, to beat Finland, in the 2021 European Championship Qualifiers. His next outing was not as good, as he allowed 11 runs in 6 innings in the finale against Slovakia, losing to Jakub Ižold. Among all five qualifiers that year, he was 4th in IP (between Edy Pirvu and Dimitri Kourtis) and 2nd in K (7 behind Ižold). At the 2022 European Championship Qualifiers, he avoided the extremes of a year prior, allowing three runs (two earned) in six innings while fanning nine after relieving Mitchell Hillert in a loss to Bulgaria and Evgenii Chernozemsky. He led Ireland in both innings and strikeouts (4 ahead of Liam Shier and Patrick Mitchell).