Michael Kopech will make a smooth transition to rotation

The Chicago White Sox had an elite starting rotation in 2021. Their worst pitcher was Dallas Keuchel who really only fell off in the second half and is a former Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion. Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, Carlos Rodon, and Dylan Cease were all magnificent for basically the entire season.

Unfortunately, Rodon is a free agent and is most likely going to sign with another team once the lockout ends. In his spot, Michael Kopech is expected to make the transition to the rotation. We don’t know what will happen with Keuchel but Kopech should be a starting pitcher again by the time the 2022 season begins.

Kopech made his MLB debut with the White Sox in 2018 as a starter. A rain delay shortened that start but we know what he is capable of doing on the mound. He throws a 100 miles per hour fastball that moves like few pitchers can do and he combines it with magnificent off-speed moving pitches.

This set of pitches that he possesses should help him become a dominant Major League starter. He has shown the ability to be good as a starter in 2018 but he quickly was shut down because of the fact that he needed Tommy John surgery. That canceled the rest of his 2018 season and all of his 2019 season.

Kopech was also one of the players to opt-out of the 2020 season that ended up only being 60 games because of COVID-19. He came back in 2021 and was an elite reliever in the White Sox bullpen. Now, as mentioned before, they are going to transition him to a starter again.

Michael Kopech is going to be a great starter for the Chicago White Sox.

This is great news for the White Sox because he has the stuff to become one of the very best pitchers in Major League Baseball. Everyone wants to be able to throw it the way that he can but he just needs to harness his pitches just a little bit more. There were flashes of a 300 million dollar arm during the 2021 campaign.

The transition back for Kopech should be smooth. He threw in 69.1 innings during the 2021 season and was very good as they tried to ease him back into Major League Baseball. He had an ERA of 3.50 with a WHIP of 1.125. He also recorded 103 strikeouts in those 69.1 innings which is impressive.

He had a slight issue with tipping his pitches which elevated his ERA towards the end of the season. However, the fact that 49.5 percent of his outs were via the strikeout is wildly impressive. If he gets that issue figured out over the winter, he will be one of the best starters going in Major League Baseball.