Sox not planning Kopech's move to rotation right now originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Michael Kopech has been one of the brightest bright spots for the White Sox in the early going.
Even as the team has started 5-5, even as the bullpen has dealt with late-game letdowns, Kopech has been magnificent in relief. In three appearances, he's retired 19 of the 24 batters he's faced, a near perfect display as he's been repeatedly deployed as a multi-inning super weapon out of the 'pen.
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Kopech's days as a member of the relief corps are numbered, of course, the White Sox using him there as a way to maximize his effectiveness in his first season back from two years without baseball. The fireballing right-hander missed the entirety of the 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then opting out of the shortened 2020 campaign due to personal reasons.
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From the jump, the plan has been to bring Kopech back to the starting rotation one day, though when that day will come remains a mystery. It will be no later than Opening Day 2022, of course, general manager Rick Hahn forecasting both Kopech and Garrett Crochet as part of the starting staff next season.
White Sox manager Tony La Russa has talked about Kopech's eventual switch from reliever to starter a great deal and even said that Kopech's role could evolve over the course of the 2021 season.
But the White Sox are in no hurry to make that move.
Not only has Kopech been downright dominant as a mid-game bridge from starter to the ferocious back end of the South Side bullpen, but the starting staff is well stocked at the moment, with Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, Lance Lynn, Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodón all pitching there at the outset of the campaign.
"Right now, there’s no plan of that because we have five guys that we are really happy with," White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz said Tuesday. "He’s also on an innings limit, too.
"He’s going to go out there and throw two or three innings and be able to get his proper rest, and then (we will) run him back out there depending on his pitch count. But the plan is not to overdo with him so we have him much stronger at the end of the season. We do too much, too soon and we have to beware of that."
Keeping all that in mind, though, it's not impossible for Kopech to make a start here or there, if everything lines up. Katz revealed that had Kopech not thrown 2.1 perfect innings in Sunday's game against the Kansas City Royals, he would have been an option to fill in for Carlos Rodón, who missed Monday's game against the Cleveland Indians with an upset stomach.
But the White Sox are perfectly happy — and indeed thrilled — by what Kopech has been able to do thus far. In a bullpen that's been slow to reach the "elite" status it projected for itself during the spring, Kopech has been elite, and La Russa's usage of him and Crochet looks like a preview of how he'll approach things come October.
So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
"He's been mixing his pitches well and getting ahead of guys and putting guys away well," Katz said. "So the stuff is there. I've been really impressed with everything he's been doing, and hopefully this continues on."
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