White Sox: Michael Kopech update isn’t what you want to hear

During the series between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, the road team announced that Michael Kopech was going to hit the 15-day Injured List. That is not the update that White Sox fans wanted to hear but there is a lot to unpack from it.

There are only a couple of weeks left in the 2022 season. Despite the fact that the White Sox are still in it (barely), they see Michael Kopech’s long-term plan as much more important than sneaking in this year.

Kopech and the team were very candid when describing why he was hitting the Injured List. It is certainly not anything to be concerned about as it is a plan to make sure that he doesn’t damage himself going forward.

He was experiencing some soreness and the two sides decided that this was a great way to keep that from happening. He has already pitched the most Major League innings that he ever has this season and it the gap is large. Kopech has done an amazing job this season.

The Chicago White Sox have placed Michael Kopech on the 15-day Injured List.

There is a chance that he gets in one of the final games of the season but there is also a chance that they just decide to shut him down for the year. No matter what the outcome is, he should be very happy with how things went.

Kopech showed in 2022 (after spending 2021 as a reliever coming back from injury in the previous years), that he can be a starter in this league. When he reaches the offseason, it will be very important for him to keep working on that so he can build on what he did this year.

Don’t be surprised if Kopech has a Dylan Cease-like breakout one day. He certainly has the arm talent to do that sort of stuff. In fact, you can argue that he has the highest ceiling of everyone on this team in terms of pitching.

There are going to be people that see Kopech’s 2022 season as a disappointment but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The White Sox didn’t score a lot of runs this year so his win-loss total isn’t ideal but he pitched very well for a first-year starter.

There were some games this season in which Kopech looked like a legit ace that could make 300 million dollars in his career. If he can put those starts together more often like Dylan Cease, Justin Verlander, or Shane Bieber, he could be very good. As mentioned before, this wasn’t ideal news but it could help Kopech in the long term.