White Sox right-hander Michael Kopech underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his right knee this morning, per a club announcement. The rehab process is expected to take six to eight weeks.
Assuming his recovery progresses as anticipated, Kopech should have a normal offseason. It’s nevertheless a sour conclusion to a disappointing year for the 27-year-old. The Sox surely hoped the one-time top prospect would take a step forward in his second full season as a big league starter. Kopech had pitched to a 3.54 ERA a year ago, and while his peripherals were never that impressive, his performance regressed well beyond expectations.
Kopech’s 2023 campaign concludes with a 5.43 ERA across 129 1/3 frames. His 22.7% strikeout rate was a bit above last year’s mark. Yet his walks spiked from an already worrisome 11.5% rate to a completely untenable 15.4% clip. Kopech also surrendered over two home runs per nine innings. Between the walks and the longballs, he has the highest FIP (6.47) of any pitcher with 100+ frames.
Chicago kicked Kopech to the bullpen this month. He finished his season with three relief outings and a “start” as an opener in which he worked one inning. He allowed at least one run in each of those appearances.
New general manager Chris Getz and his front office will have to decide Kopech’s role this offseason. He was effective as a multi-inning reliever two seasons ago, tallying 69 1/3 frames of 3.50 ERA ball with an elite 36.1% strikeout rate and a decent 8.4% walk percentage. Since stretching back out into the rotation to open the ’22 campaign, he’s allowing 4.52 earned runs per nine with a 22% strikeout percentage and 13.6% walk rate.
The Sox have almost no certainty in their starting five. Dylan Cease is locked in as the staff ace, though he’s coming off a relatively disappointing season himself on the heels of last year’s Cy Young runner-up performance. Mike Clevinger is likely to opt for a $4MM buyout over his end of a $12MM mutual option. Jesse Scholtens and Touki Toussaint are better served for depth roles. Garrett Crochet has angled for a starting spot but only logged 10 MLB innings this year because of injury.
That all seems to point to Kopech getting another crack at a rotation spot. He’ll certainly need to perform better than he did this year if he’s to hold that job for a full season. The ’24 campaign will be his second season of arbitration eligibility. Kopech will receive a slight raise on this year’s $2.05MM salary (barring a surprise non-tender) and is on track for free agency after 2025.
Speaking of Mike and minor, where is Mike Minor these days? He somehow had an 8 WAR/6.2 WAA season in which he had a 3.59 ERA. I think he was actually leading the league in ERA several months into the season in 2019 at 2.40. The average runs allowed in his pitching conditions was over 6 that year.
Ok here’s a lengthy interview. Man this guy is chatty. Too much pain or homesick I guess so no more pitching.
“I’m not closing the door, but it’s barely cracked,” said Minor, who will be a free agent. “It’s mostly if I get the itch to play, then maybe. It also goes along the same lines of if I feel good. If I don’t feel good, then that answers that question pretty easily. I’d have to feel good, and I’d have to want to play and want to be away from my family again.”
“It’s tough being away from my family, pitching like that and feeling like this, you know, every fifth day pretty much getting beat by players – good players, but players I’ve beat in the past or I know that if maybe I was healthy, I would have a better chance against them,” Minor said. “That’s been tough being humbled the whole year.”
“I’m trying to be there for my teammates, but I can feel them behind me. They’re out there a long time in the field and it doesn’t feel good to pitch like that, dig a hole and have them try to get out of it for me. It doesn’t feel good. That’s been the hardest part all year. I want to put up quality innings, quality starts and I didn’t do it all year.”
“A lot of times, it was like what am I managing because I’m not even pitching well,” Minor said. “I’m not really helping the team. At a point, I feel like we were kind of limited on players and starters, so I was trying to push through it for that reason.”
“For me, it’s like every throw,” Minor said. “You’re getting ready for a game, right? You’re all pumped up and everything. You go out there to play catch. From the first throw, you’re like, ‘oh, (expletive), that hurts.’ People say like a knife going into your shoulder kind of thing. Something like that, but it’s hard to be excited when you’re like, ‘this sucks.’
“This year, it’s been all year. There have been good and bad games where I felt better on some, worse on others. I wanted to at least give it a try. I feel like they pay me to play. I played as long as I could.”
“I feel like I’ve had pretty good success my whole career, but I’ve had to grind through it,” Minor said. “It’s not been easy, but I’ve prided myself on that. Being there every time, taking the ball when I didn’t feel good. I know there are a lot of people that wouldn’t take the ball with the pain that I’ve had or the stuff I’ve gone through, so I pride myself on that. I feel like that was kind of an old-school of doing things. The guys I came up with, that’s what they did. You play until you can’t.”
He pitched poorly from 2020 to 2022.
Probably due to the pain that he was referring to.
My guess is that he’s done unless magically heals. He didn’t sound intetested in playing in pain any more (who would?).
Oh no what if the White Sox make the playoffs?
So, I am assuming he won’t be on the Sox Little League World series team!!