Trading Away Michael Kopech
People with big hearts feel for Michael Kopech. His career hasn’t gone exactly as planned over the last few years and that has kept him out of the White Sox lineup now for a while. He made his MLB debut at the end of 2018. After a few starts, he hurt his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery. That shut him down for the remainder of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season. He looked very good in his 2020 Spring Training debut but the league was paused right after for COVID-19.
When the White Sox and the rest of Major League Baseball returned, Kopech opted out of the season. Nobody has the full story but some personal reasons seem to be the issue. It isn’t our business and we support Kopech to the fullest extent. He will be back better than ever in 2021 and he might even have a chip on his shoulder after the way things have been for the past few years.
All of that is why the White Sox would be very unwise to trade away Kopech. He can throw a moving fastball 101 miles per hour and has electric stuff when he is on the mound. This is a guy who trading leaves an open door for him to become a star on another team. He was in rumors leading up the deadline but the White Sox were wise enough to hand on to him.
The organization even addressed his situation once the deadline passed yesterday. Sure, it is a bit scary that by the time he takes the ball in 2021 it will have been almost three years since his last start but he has the talent to overcome that. Hopefully, he is able to reward the White Sox for sticking with him despite a lot of people wanting them to ship him out. The White Sox did well by not doing anything on this deadline.