How Michael Kopech is learning to be a relief pitcher originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
One year ago — seriously, almost exactly one year ago — Michael Kopech reminded everyone why the hype was so huge.
Pitching in a Cactus League game, his grandest stage since Tommy John surgery forced him into more than a year-long hiatus, he lit up the radar gun, blew away batters and popped the eyes of every fan watching thousands of miles away on the South Side.
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After another year-long layoff, this time due to personal reasons, Kopech was back on the mound Tuesday in Arizona. And again, he wowed, requiring just nine pitches to retire the San Diego Padres in order.
Like most Kopech fastballs, if you blinked, you missed it.
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But what was impossible to miss was that, unlike last year's dazzling inning, Kopech didn't start the game. He pitched in relief, something he's slated to do, at least at the outset of the 2021 campaign, after more than two years removed from his last regular-season outing.
Tuesday was the latest lesson in Kopech's ongoing education this spring in how to be a reliever. While the White Sox promised a "creative" usage of the still potential-packed right-hander this year — it's possible his role could evolve into a starting one over the course of the season — he'll begin deployed as a multi-inning relief weapon for a team with World Series expectations.
To master that role, it's going to take some practice.
"It was a good opportunity to see how that was going to go," Kopech said. "And getting loose quick for me is not something I’m used to. I got up there today, felt just as comfortable. Maybe had a little bit more of a racing heart because of that, sort of speak. But I felt comfortable after I got out there and got back on the mound, felt just like I was pitching in a starting role.
"I went into today without much of a routine at all. I just wanted to see how I handled that because I’ve been very routine-based throughout my entire career: 'I need to do this and this every day.' And to kind of take a step away from that, just, 'Hey, I’m going to have to do whatever they tell me to do,' I think that made things a little bit easier for me."
Indeed, things seemed easy for Kopech, whose pitch count didn't hit double digits and whose fastball didn't hit triple digits. He laughed when a reporter suggested he was throwing an "easy 98."
It's not surprising to see a different kind of pitcher more than 30 months removed from his last big league outing. But the time spent away from the White Sox in 2020, specifically, has jumpstarted a new outlook for Kopech, both in his physical and mental approach to the game.
"I've had a mindset in the past of trying to make my pitchers better than they are," he said. "Trying to make a slider a really nasty strikeout slider and make them swing at that, or a curveball that's a really great breaker in the dirt that's going to have someone come out of their shoes, rather than just knowing what I do well and just trying to throw strikes with it, which was kind of the approach today. Just using the pitches that I have and trying to throw strikes with it, and if they can hit it, they can hit it.
"I’m not really worried about velocity, but more so about pitching. We’ve got a pitching coach (Ethan Katz) that is allowing me to be competitive with myself and challenge me a little bit. With that being said, I’m having fun pitching the way I’m pitching, and if the velocity stays around then that’s great, too."
As promising as an inning like Tuesday's looked, of course, what Kopech will be able to deliver over the course of a season remains a mystery. The truth remains that he's logged two exhibition innings since coming out of a game against the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 5, 2018.
There's going to be more to learn as he navigates the bullpen waters for the first time. He mentioned Tuesday that he needs to get used to pitching out of the stretch because he needs to get used to coming into games with runners in scoring position. He needs to get used to pitching every couple days instead of having four days between outings. He needs to get used to attacking hitters with everything he's got rather than playing a chess match with hitters across two or three at-bats over the course of a game.
Fortunately for Kopech and the White Sox, the dude is still crazy talented. And fortunately for Kopech, he knows where this train is going to end up: with him starting again.
Along the way, though, he has a chance to be a potentially dominant weapon out of the bullpen. He just needs to more moments like Tuesday's to learn how.
"It definitely gives me an opportunity to feel what it means to be both (a starter and a reliever)," Kopech said. "And if nothing else, if at some point I do end up going back to being a starter, I think it's a good transition phase, too. Just kind of getting me used to competing from this role and then slowly getting stretched out and transitioning to a role that way rather than going from one role to another.
"It definitely is the best of both worlds because I spent my entire career training as a starter and trying to create a repertoire of a four-pitch mix, and then going to a reliever role where I can just compete with my better pitches if I need to. It's a great learning opportunity for me."
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