Michael Kopech

Injury Notes: Kopech, Pasquantino, Ashcraft, Tigers

By Anthony Franco | August 23, 2022 at 10:10pm CDT

The White Sox placed starter Michael Kopech on the 15-day injured list this afternoon due to a left knee strain. The righty seemed to suffer the injury during warm-ups before yesterday’s start against the Royals, and his velocity was well down during the outing. Kopech didn’t record an out, allowing two hits, a walk and a hit batsman before being taken out of an eventual 6-4 loss. Alarming as that showing was, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times relays that the club expects Kopech to return when first eligible two weeks from now (Twitter link).

Even a minimal IL isn’t ideal for a Chicago team that entered play Tuesday three games back of the Guardians in the AL Central. Kopech has been one of the club’s more effective pitchers, carrying a 3.58 ERA through 110 2/3 innings (and a 3.25 mark if one throws out yesterday’s performance as an injury anomaly). Kopech’s strikeout and walk numbers haven’t been as impressive, however, and there are lingering questions about precisely how many innings the 26-year-old may be equipped to throw this year. He worked primarily in relief last season and tallied 69 1/3 frames during his first season back after missing all of 2019-20. He’s already eclipsed that mark by over 40 innings this year.

Catching up on some other injury situations around the game:

The Royals placed rookie designated hitter/first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino on the 10-day injured list due to right shoulder discomfort this afternoon. Like Kopech, the 24-year-old was injured in yesterday’s contest between Chicago and Kansas City. After a breakout 2021 season in the minors, Pasquantino emerged as one of the game’s top offensive prospects heading into this year. He mashed in Triple-A and has hit the ground running as a big leaguer, carrying a .263/.350/.434 showing with eight home runs and an excellent combination of walks (11%) and strikeouts (13.5%) through his first 200 MLB plate appearances. The left-handed hitter looks like a key long-term piece for a Kansas City team with its attention firmly turned towards 2023. Fellow top prospect Nick Pratto should pick up the first base playing time in Pasquantino’s absence, while Ryan O’Hearn and Hunter Dozier may get the majority of the DH at-bats. Kansas City didn’t specify a timetable on Pasquantino’s return.
Reds starter Graham Ashcraft landed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 20, with biceps soreness. The rookie right-hander is headed for an MRI, but skipper David Bell indicated the club was optimistic about his ability to return before the end of the season (via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). The 24-year-old made his big league debut debut in May and has joined Nick Lodolo and Hunter Greene as rookie rotation cogs for the Reds. Through 16 starts, the hard-throwing hurler owns a 3.97 ERA on the strength of an excellent 54.8% ground-ball rate. Ashcraft looks to have made a strong case for a rotation role next season, generally outperforming both Lodolo and Greene — each of whom has been more highly-regarded by most prospect evaluators.
The Tigers placed second baseman Jonathan Schoop on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 21, with a sprained right ankle. It’s the first IL stint in two years for the veteran infielder, who has played in just under 95% of Detroit’s games since the start of 2021. Schoop posted above-average numbers last year to earn a contract extension in August, but he’s had a dreadful showing offensively this season. Over 447 plate appearances, he’s hitting only .202/.235/.318 with nine home runs. Defensive metrics have been enamored with his glovework at the keystone, but no other qualified hitter is within 19 points of Schoop’s league-worst on-base percentage. He’s likely to exercise a $7.5MM player option this winter to return to the club for 2023.
Sticking with the Tigers, manager A.J. Hinch cast doubt on the possibility of seeing catcher Jake Rogers this season (via Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic). Rogers underwent Tommy John surgery last September, and he’s spent the entire year on the 60-day injured list while rehabbing. It’s almost been a calendar year since that operation. The 27-year-old Rogers hit .182/.264/.378 in 255 plate appearances between 2019-21.

White Sox, Yankees Among Teams With Interest In Jose Quintana

By Anthony Franco | July 26, 2022 at 11:12pm CDT

The White Sox and Yankees are among the clubs expressing interest in Pirates starter José Quintana, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The veteran southpaw is almost certain to change teams as a fairly productive impending free agent on the fourth-place Bucs.

Chicago is plenty familiar with Quintana, of course. The Colombian-born hurler began his big league career with the South Siders and spent essentially all of his prime seasons there. One of the sport’s best pitchers at his peak, Quintana worked 200+ innings with an ERA of 3.51 or lower each season from 2013-16. The Sox flipped him across town in a 2017 blockbuster that netted them Dylan Cease and Eloy Jiménez from the Cubs.

Since leaving the White Sox, Quintana has posted more up-and-down production. He’s generally looked like a competent but unexciting back-of-the-rotation arm, excepting last season when he spent a good chunk of the year in the bullpen. Quintana has returned to the rotation full-time since signing with Pittsburgh, taking 19 turns and working 97 1/3 innings. At just a bit more than five frames per start, the 33-year-old has had a relatively sheltered workload. The Pirates have allowed him to face a batter for the third time in an outing on just 68 occasions all season.

While Quintana hasn’t been counted on as a prototypical innings eater, he’s been generally effective on a rate basis. He owns a 3.70 ERA, his lowest mark since his final full season with the White Sox. Quintana has a modest 20.7% strikeout rate, but he’s induced swinging strikes on a slightly above-average 11.1% of his pitches. After an uncharacteristic spike in walks last season, he’s again demonstrating his more typical strong control (7.1% walk percentage).

Quintana won’t be the most exciting player on the move this summer, but there’s value for contenders in stability at the back of the rotation. The White Sox have gotten ace-level production from Cease, and minor league signee Johnny Cueto has provided an invaluable 2.72 ERA through 12 starts. However, the Sox have gotten underwhelming work from Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn. Hard-throwing righty Michael Kopech has shown well in moving from the bullpen to the rotation, but his 83 innings are already past last year’s 69 1/3 frames. Pitching coach Ethan Katz pushed back against the idea that Kopech will be on any sort of innings limit this evening (via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Nevertheless, there’s room for another arm capable of reducing some of the pressure on Kopech, particularly with Vince Velasquez on the injured list due to blister trouble.

The Yankees are also familiar with Quintana, although he’s never suited up for them in the major leagues. He spent three years in their minor league system before making his MLB debut, departing as a minor league free agent after the 2011 campaign. Of course, the far more relevant concern for general manager Brian Cashman and his staff would be to fortify the depth of a rotation that recently lost Luis Severino to a lat strain. The Yankees rotation has been very good overall but middle-of-the-pack over the past month, with Jameson Taillon particularly struggling of late. As with the White Sox, New York probably wouldn’t look to Quintana to supplant anyone in their top five, but rather as a swing option who can add some stability behind that group.

Quintana should have a fairly broad range of appeal to pitching-needy clubs, as he’s affordable. He’s playing this season on just a $2MM base salary, around $800K of which remains owed. That’s a marginal sum, no doubt intriguing with the White Sox and Yankees each looking to bolster rosters that are already running franchise-record payrolls.

Michael Kopech Leaves Game Due To Right Knee Discomfort

By Mark Polishuk | June 12, 2022 at 6:18pm CDT

6:18PM: Speaking with The Athletic’s James Fegan (Twitter links) and other reporters after the game, Kopech said his knee is sore and there is some fluid buildup, but an MRI revealed no structural problems. He did feel a small twinge or pop sensation in his knee during his final pitch of the game.

Both Kopech and manager Tony La Russa expressed hope that the injury wasn’t serious, and that Kopech might potentially not even miss a start. For the Detroit series, La Russa said Lynn will now pitch on Monday, Dylan Cease will start Tuesday, and Wednesday’s starter is to be determined.

5:21PM: Michael Kopech lasted only 13 pitches into today’s start against the Rangers, as the White Sox right-hander had to leave the game due to what the Sox later described as discomfort in his right knee. After tossing a strike to Adolis Garcia, Kopech was in visible discomfort on the mound, and departed after a visit from the team trainer.

More will be known about Kopech’s status after he receives testing and treatment, yet for now, it looks like the White Sox have perhaps suffered yet another key injury. With several notable players sidelined for long stretches of time (or even the entire season, such as Tommy John patient Garrett Crochet), Chicago has been unable to get much momentum going, as the club carried a 27-30 record into today’s game with Texas.

Just as it seemed the rotation was finally taking shape with the impending return of Lance Lynn, the White Sox now face another possible absence in Kopech. Lynn had been slated for Tuesday’s game against the Tigers, though Chicago’s rotation will have to be reshuffled since Johnny Cueto (Monday’s scheduled starter) ended up pitching five innings today. An off-day on Thursday should help to settle things, but in the short term, the Sox now suddenly face a bit of a crunch for this series in Detroit.

In his first full year as a starting pitcher, Kopech has an outstanding 1.94 ERA over 51 2/3 innings, though his 4.34 SIERA and 4.49 xFIP aren’t as impressed by his performance. The righty has benefited from a .180 BABIP, and his 12% walk rate is only in the 13th percentile of all pitchers. While some regression was probably inevitable, it also remained to be seen how long Kopech would remain in the rotation, as it seemed likely the White Sox would limit his innings to some extent given Kopech’s lack of work in 2019-20, and his usage as a reliever in 2021.

White Sox Select Davis Martin

By Steve Adams | May 17, 2022 at 11:06am CDT

The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Davis Martin from Triple-A Charlotte and transferred lefty Garrett Crochet to the 60-day injured list in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The move involving Crochet was a formality after the southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this year. Martin will start the second game of today’s doubleheader, per the Sox. Chicago also placed right-hander Michael Kopech on the paternity list and called up right-hander Kyle Crick as the 27th man for today’s twin bill.

It’ll be the Major League debut for Martin, 25, who was the ChiSox’ 14th-round pick back in 2018. He entered the season ranked 22nd among Chicago farmhands over at FanGraphs and can’t have hurt his stock with a strong performance so far. Maritn opened the season in Double-A Birmingham, where he notched a 3.38 ERA with a huge 32.4% strikeout rate against a tidy 6.9% walk rate. His strikeout rate has dipped to 18.6% in a smaller sample of two Triple-A starts, but Martin has also walked just 4.7% of his Triple-A opponents while pitching to a 1.50 ERA there. Overall, he’s sporting a combined 2.50 ERA and 41-to-9 K/BB ratio through 36 frames between the minor leagues’ top two levels.

After seeing the fruits of their last rebuild (e.g. Luis Robert, Michael Kopech, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez) graduate to the Majors (to say nothing of names like Dane Dunning and Nick Madrigal, who were traded for veterans) the Sox have a notoriously thin farm system. That doesn’t, however, mean it’s totally devoid of depth, and Martin certainly has the makings of a potentially useful spot starter or back-of-the-rotation option. Given that the South Siders currently have Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito on the injured list, having some optionable rotation depth is of increased importance.

That said, Giolito is expected to return from the Covid-related injured list perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The Athletic’s James Fegan tweets that he’s expected to start Wednesday’s game, pushing the remainder of the rotation back a day. Lynn, meanwhile, is slated to throw to hitters Friday as he works back from knee surgery.

Even with Giolito and perhaps Lynn not too far off on the horizon, there should be ample opportunities for Martin if he impresses in today’s spot start and continues to impress down the line in the upper minors. The Sox are likely going to be judicious with Michael Kopech’s workload, and both Dallas Keuchel and Vince Velasquez have struggled mightily in the season’s first six weeks. Johnny Cueto was brilliant in yesterday’s White Sox debut, giving the team a much-needed boost after having his contract selected from Triple-A — he’d inked a minor league deal in early April — but other injuries and absences will surely open additional doors for Martin and others from the farm to make an impact.

White Sox GM Rick Hahn On Kimbrel, Rodon, Kopech

By Anthony Franco | November 10, 2021 at 1:34pm CDT

The White Sox enter the offseason coming off their first division title in thirteen years. General manager Rick Hahn has met with the media a few times in recent days to discuss a couple key early offseason decisions and provide updates on a few players already under team control.

First and foremost, Hahn addressed a pair of decisions Chicago has already made: exercising a $16MM club option on reliever Craig Kimbrel and declining to issue an $18.4MM qualifying offer to starter Carlos Rodón. Last month, Bob Nightengale of USA Today suggested the Sox could look to deal Kimbrel after exercising the option, and Hahn acknowledged that as a possibility.

“We view him as a potentially impactful reliever, as he’s been for the vast majority of his career,” Hahn said of Kimbrel (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN). “What we have to figure out is if it makes the most sense to have Craig in a White Sox uniform going forward or is there a better use of that spot and him perhaps via trade?”

Kimbrel’s one of trickier players around the league to value. As Hahn noted, the righty has been one of the best relievers in recent history over the course of his career. He’s an eight-time All-Star who posted an absurd 0.49 ERA with a 46.7% strikeout rate in 36 2/3 innings for the Cubs last season. But Kimbrel struggled badly with the North Siders from 2019-20, and he was tagged for a 5.09 ERA (albeit with a still-excellent 36.7% strikeout percentage) in 23 frames after being traded to the South Side at the deadline. There’ll certainly be plenty of teams intrigued by the possibility of Kimbrel as a late-game stopper, but clubs will have to weigh his upside against his recent run of inconsistency and fairly high price tag in 2022.

On Rodón, Hahn told reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com) the team remained open to his return. “(The qualifying offer) was not offered to him. It doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in bringing him back,” Hahn said. “We have not ruled out him returning.” Nightengale previously reported the Sox didn’t intend to make a great effort to bringing the southpaw back, though, and it seems likely Rodón and his representatives at the Boras Corporation will be able to top the $18.4MM QO value — which Chicago was unwilling to risk, at least this early in the offseason — on the open market.

One could make the case the Sox already have an in-house option to step into Rodón’s rotation spot in Michael Kopech. The flamethrowing righty missed all of 2019-20 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and opting out of the 2020 campaign due to concerns about COVID-19. Chicago used him as a multi-inning relief weapon this past season to keep his workload in check, but Hahn told reporters (including James Fegan of the Athletic) last week the club is committed to stretching Kopech out as a starter in 2022.

The 25-year-old Kopech worked 69 1/3 innings in 2021, posting a 3.50 ERA with a huge 36.1% strikeout percentage and a fine 8.4% walk rate. There’s some risk in taking him out of a bullpen role to which he acclimated so well, but public scouting reports have long suggested Kopech could have top-of-the-rotation upside if given the opportunity. The White Sox are set to explore that possibility, although Hahn cautioned that Kopech may not be ready to take on an ace-caliber workload from Day One.

“I’m going to probably be sitting in this chair some point next summer explaining why we are doing something with Michael in terms of giving him a break in order to keep him strong over the course of that season,” Hahn said (via Fegan). “It’s the innings base and what can we reasonably tack onto him over the course of ideally seven months next year. We are going to have to be diligent in our monitoring of him over the course of the offseason as well as he goes through spring training, and over the course of the regular season in terms of how the ball looks coming out of his hand, what his mechanics look like, what the data is telling us, how Michael is reporting how he feels.”

Hahn also provided updates on a pair of injured players last week. Lance Lynn will spend the next 3-4 weeks resting and rehabbing a right knee issue that sent him to the injured list in late August (via Mark Gonzales). Outfielder Adam Engel, meanwhile, recently underwent surgery to address a left shoulder injury that landed him on the shelf in August as well (according to Maddie Lee of NBC Sports Chicago). That procedure is not expected to affect Engel’s readiness for the start of next season.

White Sox Activate Michael Kopech; Aaron Bummer, Evan Marshall Placed On 10-Day IL

By Mark Polishuk | June 30, 2021 at 4:14pm CDT

The White Sox have reinstated right-hander Michael Kopech from the 10-day injured list, and also called up left-hander Jace Fry from Triple-A Charlotte. The moves come in response to a pair of bullpen injuries, as both southpaw Aaron Bummer (right hamstring strain) and righty Evan Marshall (strained right flexor pronator) are headed to the 10-day IL.

Due to a Tommy John surgery and then a COVID opt-out, Kopech’s 31 1/3 innings this season marked his first big league action since his debut campaign of 14 1/3 frames in 2018. One of the game’s more highly-touted pitching prospects, Kopech has displayed that potential with a 1.72 ERA and a 36% strikeout rate this season before a strained left hamstring sent him to the IL on a retroactive May 28th placement.

The White Sox planned to keep Kopech in a hybrid swingman role a way of managing his innings, and it’s possible he could get more looks out of the pen in the near future considering the absences of Bummer and Marshall. Chicago manager Tony La Russa told reporters (including James Fegan of The Athletic) that the club is hopeful Bummer is able to return after a minimal stint on the IL, though Marshall will be out of action for a to-be-determined longer period of time.

Bummer has a 3.26 ERA over 30 1/3 innings, with his typically large ground ball rate (a career-best 74%) as well as a 32.1% strikeout rate that would be a career high by a large margin over a full season. Bummer has been an effective weapon out of Chicago’s bullpen for five years now, with the exception of an injury-shortened 2020 campaign.

Marshall pitched well last season to help account for Bummer’s absence, but 2021 has been a much tougher ride for the right-hander. Marshall has a 5.60 ERA over 27 1/3 innings, due to the combination of a larger-than-usual homer rate, a below-average strikeout rate, and a 40.8% grounder rate that is well south of his 52.6% career average.

White Sox Place Michael Kopech On 10-Day Injured List

By TC Zencka | May 31, 2021 at 10:31am CDT

The White Sox have placed Michael Kopech on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-times (via Twitter). The move is retroactive to May 28th.

Jimmy Lambert, meanwhile, has been recalled to be the 27th man for today’s doubleheader. He will start the second game. It will be the first appearance of the season for Lambert. The 26-year-old tossed two scoreless innings of relief in 2020. He is likely to function in more of an opener role than as a traditional starter.

Kopech boasts the beginnings of a breakout campaign. The lanky Texan has moved seamlessly between roles for manager Tony La Russa, putting up a 1.72 ERA/2.54 FIP across 31 1/3 innings. If he can continue with a 36.0 percent strikeout rate and 8.8 percent walk rate as he has thus far, the White Sox may have a premier swingman on their hands. As ever, however, healthy will be primary for Kopech.

Latest On White Sox Rotation

By TC Zencka | April 26, 2021 at 10:31am CDT

Lucas Giolito suffered a “freak minor injury,” pushing his start back from yesterday to Tuesday and allowing the White Sox to keep Michael Kopech in the rotation for one more go. He delivered with his longest and most-impressive outing of the season, using 87 pitches to get through five innings, striking out ten, giving up four hits, zero walks and one run in a win against the Rangers.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa believes in Kopech’s long-term potential as a rotation arm, but he’ll go back to a hybrid role out of the bullpen for now. Per the Athletic’s James Fegan, La Russa said, “This is definitely not the time to think about moving Michael into the rotation. Michael Kopech is going to be a top-line starting pitcher. But right now it made sense to get him in condition and add more and more pitches. More importantly, the fact that he has competed so well shows that he has guts when he goes out there; he keeps his cool and concentration. I don’t have a crystal ball, but if he pitched — and I use the (Adam) Wainwright experience from ’06 — he can pitch in the bullpen all year long and maybe next year win 20 (games), or maybe later on he pitches this year as a starter.”

Kopech has made a pair of spot starts this year in his first game action since 2018. He’s also come out of the bullpen four times for a total of 15 2/3 innings – already a big-league career-high – with a sparkling 1.72 ERA/1.25 FIP. He’s striking out batters at an elite 46.6 percent rate while allowing a very strong 6.9 percent walk. It’s early, of course, but even out of the pen, the lanky 24-year-old with electric stuff is proving to be a weapon for the White Sox.

Kopech has come a long way since being a centerpiece of the Chris Sale trade back in 2016. It’s somewhat amazing that he’ll turn just 25 years old this upcoming Friday. Fegan detailed Kopech’s journey back to the Majors for a piece well worth a read here in the Athletic.

Chicago Notes: Baez, Pederson, Kopech

By Connor Byrne | February 26, 2021 at 8:14pm CDT

Here’s the latest on Chicago’s two major league teams:

Shortstop Javier Baez once again made it clear Friday that he wants to remain with the Cubs, not depart in free agency next offseason, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic tweets. “Obviously, I want to stay here. I don’t want to play for another team,” Baez said, though the Cubs may lose the opportunity to extend the two-time All-Star if they don’t do so by the time the season begins. Baez stated he’ll “probably” put a deadline on talks in spring training. Barring a new deal, Baez could be one of several free-agent standouts at his position next winter, though he’s in need of a rebound after hitting a dismal .203/.238/.360 with 75 strikeouts against just seven walks in 235 plate appearances last year.
One of Baez’s new teammates, outfielder Joc Pederson, told Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times and other reporters that he turned down longer offers to join the Cubs. The former Dodger inked a one-year, $7MM guarantee with the Cubs because of the allure of playing every day. Pederson was a platoon player in Los Angeles, where the left-handed swinger batted .238/.349/.501 over 2,132 trips to the plate versus righties. On the other hand, he managed an ugly .191/.266/.310 line in 385 PA against southpaws.
White Sox manager Tony La Russa confirmed Friday that righty Michael Kopech will open the season in the team’s bullpen, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score relays. The highly touted Kopech made his major league debut in 2018, throwing 14 1/3 innings, but he had to undergo Tommy John surgery in September of that year, and he hasn’t appeared in the bigs since. Kopech missed 2019 while recovering the procedure and then sat out last season because of COVID-19 concerns. The 24-year-old continues to rank as one of baseball’s most promising prospects, though, with MLB.com placing him 39th overall.

White Sox Notes: Vaughn, Fry, Crochet, Kopech, Roster

By Steve Adams | February 19, 2021 at 6:18pm CDT

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn met with reporters yesterday as pitchers and catchers reported to camp, touching on a number of topics pertaining to a bolstered 2021 roster. Perhaps most notably, Hahn indicated that top prospect Andrew Vaughn, the No. 3 overall pick from the 2019 draft, is “very much in the mix” to make the Opening Day roster (Twitter link via Daryl Van-Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Chicago was at times connected to potential DH candidates throughout the winter, but part of the reason the Sox opted not to bring in a dedicated DH was due to their belief that Vaughn could emerge as early as this season.

While the 22-year-old still has just 55 professional games under his belt thanks to the absence of minor league play in 2020, Vaughn fared well in that time, slashing a combined .278/.384/.449 with six homers, 17 doubles and nearly as many walks (30) as strikeouts (36). Vaughn’s numbers at Cal teetered on absurd, as he batted .374/.495/.668 with 50 long balls in 745 plate appearances. He’s universally ranked among the game’s Top 30 or so prospects, and once he makes the roster he could split time with Jose Abreu between first base and designated hitter.

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