The White Sox will promote top pitching prospect Michael Kopech on Tuesday, the team announced on its official Twitter feed. The 22-year-old right-hander will make his Major League debut in a start against the Twins.
Picked 33rd overall by the Red Sox in the 2014 draft, Kopech was already considered one of the game’s top young arms when Boston dealt him as part of the blockbuster prospect package sent to Chicago in exchange for ace southpaw Chris Sale in December 2016. Kopech made his Double-A and Triple-A debuts in the White Sox farm system, and he has posted a 3.63 ERA, 11.9 K/9, and 2.88 K/BB rate over 141 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level.
Those numbers also include some control issues, such as a 4.3 BB/9 this season, and Kopech’s 2018 season has been marred by a few rough outings. Kopech recently discussed his year with The Athletic’s James Fegan, which has seen him deal with some off-the-field tragedy while also working on such mechanical issues as a new grip for his changeup, and a slower delivery. His delivery was cited as a concern in scouting reports from both MLB.com and Baseball America, with BA noting that Kopech’s delivery is a reason for “his below-average command and control.”
Still, despite these issues, both MLB.com and Baseball America ranked Kopech as the 13th-best prospect in baseball due to his massive potential. (Fangraphs also had him 16th on their updated top-100 prospect rankings, with ESPN’s Keith Law ranking Kopech 11th and Baseball Prospectus ranking him 17th in their preseason top-100 lists.) If Kopech is able to refine his changeup, it would be his third pitch to go along with a slider that MLB.com calls a “plus-plus offering as its best,” as well as Kopech’s signature pitch, a blazing fastball. Kopech has cracked triple digits with his heater and regularly throws it in the 96-99mph range.
Kopech has long been considered one of the jewels of the White Sox rebuild, and the decision to promote him at this point means that he’ll get an audition towards becoming a regular rotation member in 2019. With Kopech now reaching the big leagues, it only creates more anticipation towards the potential debut of Chicago’s top prospect, slugger Eloy Jimenez.
Wow. Can’t wait
First start Tuesday! I’ll be there!
Eloy should not be far behind
Man I was ready for Eloy, but check his stats the last 10 games. Not an opportune time to call him up.
He’s “slumping” to a .789 OPS over his last 11 games with a .257 BABIP – and that includes hitting safely in 10 out of those 11.
I’d like to think they’re just being smart and waiting to bring them up 1 at a time to attract more fans to multiple games instead of just 1 for their debuts.
exactly
Starting pitchers are the main attraction for most fans. When the Angels are in town in September most White Sox fans will want to attend if and when Shohei Ohtani is on the mound knowing that Mike Trout will be in the lineup for each game.
Same goes with Eloy Jimenez. Once he is promoted he will be in the lineup every day so most fans with limited budgets will show up when either Michael Kopech or Carlos Rodon are scheduled to pitch.
During normal circumstances, I’d tend to agree. But for a star position prospect making his major league debut, it’s different. After his debut, I’m sure it’ll go right back to what you said though.
If they had cared about the fans showing up, they would not have traded Sale, Eaton, and Quintana. But if you think Kopech will be a bigger draw, good luck with that.
Yes, he will. Because Sox fans want to see a promising future, not some hodge-podge disaster managed by someone that didnt even want the job to begin with. It took Hahn wrestling away full control of operations from Kenny to allow this rebuild to happen, and despite being woefully awful, I haven’t been this excited for the whitesox since 05.
+1
that’s +1 to stymeedone.
I’d be willing to bet Kopech will be a bigger draw than Eaton and Quintana.
Single handily, he will probably not be a bigger draw than Sale. If you throw him on a young, up-and-coming team (which wouldn’t have been possible without trading those 3 guys), then they’ll likely have more fans showing up in the near future (compared to having Sale/Eaton/Q stuck on a ~.500 team).
Certainly earned the promotion to get his feet wet, but still surprised. Like the concept of him being in the rotation with Rodon/Lopez from the start for ’19. If Cease goes to Triple A out of ST and keeps dominating, hope he joins big club to make it 4 compelling young arms for bulk of next season.
One of my favorite prospects in the systems. I want to see him in the majors and show his legit stuff. White sox fans are going to love this guy.
Sheffield >>>>>>> Kopech
Cease>Sheffield if we want to play guessing game. No matter if they each pitch to their potential.
At what? Throwing left handed? Probably.
Nice one.
Judge Judy’s been drinking again!
Nice to see one of the top guys finally get promoted. What does him getting promoted at this time (as opposed to earlier in the year or September when a lot of guys get called up) mean for his service time ?
It means nothing
That’s definitely not true.
I think he means it means nothing different. Clock starts in 2018 for September or August. If you wanted to hold on to more time, it’d have to be May of 2019
Michael Kopech has been “lights-out” in his last 7 starts for AAA Charlotte. He has 59 strikeouts and four walks in that span covering 44 innings. Kopech has had command of all of his pitches and even added a curveball to his repertoire that already included an 80-grade fastball, 65-grade slider and improving changeup.
I also expect the White Sox to add their overall #1 prospect, slugging OF Eloy Jimenez to the active roster shortly, perhaps even joining Kopech this week versus the Twins.
Jimenez too?! Sure you don’t want to go further out on that limb?
Bring this pitcher to the team!
youtu.be/zljqu89p3F8
That Quintana trade is looking real good for the Sox
They didnt get Kopech in the Quintana trade.
Yeah, true. They gave up this year’s front runner for the Cy Young award, Chris Sale, for Kopech. That might be why the Quintana trade is the one looking good for the White Sox.
He was going to be a front runner regardless of who traded for him. They needed to trade him. And let’s be honest, they got Sale for Kopech and Basabe. Because I dont know who told Moncada he is the next Griffey Jr., but if he doesn’t level out his swing, and start making contact, he is going to make Gordon “pop up” Beckham look like superstar. Hell, I’d be happy if he struck out 15% percent less, because those are his ks while looking
Some players are just slow starters. I could be wrong but I believe Moncada will be fine. Tim Anderson didn’t start off hot but is shaping up to be a pretty solid player. Be patient, there’s plenty of time. As long as Yoan doesn’t become another Viciedo, he’ll be alright. As for Kopech, he’s put in his time and earned his promotion. Not much more to prove in AAA and will benefit from experience in the majors.
Anderson is in danger of OPS’ing under .700 fwiw.
He’s up almost 30 points over last year, and he’s playing some very good defense. He’s on pace for ~3 WAR. That’s a solid player.
Anderson didn’ tstart playing baseball until he was 18 I believe. He had a lot of holes in his game because he was so raw. It’s not hard to believe he could be even better than this. He showed zero plate discipline in the minors and he got away with it because he hit everything. His defense was always a question mark so seeing that turn into a positive is very encouraging. I don’t think he’ll ever be a high OBP guy but if he can get that slightly above league average he’ll be a really nice player.
It’s his first full season. Not everyone is an immediate impact player. Take a look at what Schmidt and Matt Williams did, to say nothing of Ventura.
Was sad to see him traded from Boston but excited (and now grateful) for Sale. I’m very interested to see how he does, if he can harness his stuff.
If drawing crowds mattered to the Sox then they would have never tore it all down to rebuild in the first place. Jimenez will be up when the club can maximize his value, Ie one more year of control next April late in the month. Bringing him up now does nothing but give the Sox a worse draft pick next season, and doing so unnecessarily As for Kopech making this club better this season? I dunno, many of the Sox pitchers have pitched light out baseball at times and still lost because their offense cannot hit the broadside of a barn at times. Including the last ‘monster bat’ in Moncada
Kopech was ready, He has shown he is durable and has suffered through adversity but came out and made adjustments and gotten better. Jimenez has not stayed in one place, and has not been healthy enough, to show he can do this. That and the Sox again would likely rather wait until next year to bring up Eloy due to the extra control they can get for him because, if he is as good as people think he will be, he will likely be getting the largest contract ever for a White Sox player, and I think the org-rightly or wrongly- wants to postpone that for as long as they can.