Any fan who has watched the Chicago White Sox since starting pitcher/reliever Michael Kopech came to the team realizes that there is a lot of potential in him.
This guy has star power, and we know it but he has only shown flashes of brilliance over his career with the White Sox and hasn’t quite stepped it up yet.
2024 is going to be a huge year for Kopech. Well, it’s either going to be huge or it’s going to be the year we realize he is either mediocre or perhaps a bust.
This is Kopech’s make-or-break season.
Kopech has been in the majors for four seasons. He started with the big club in 2018. He missed part of 2018 and all of 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. In 2020, he sat out the season due to Covid-19. Kopech was back and ready to go in 2021 and ended up pitching 69.1 innings.
He improved upon the number of innings played in 2022 when he pitched a total of 119.1 innings. In 2023, Kopech again increased his innings and managed to get 129.1 innings. His ERA in 2023 ballooned to 5.43. He suffered some injury setbacks and wasn’t playing as well as he had the previous year. Kopech gave up a total of 115 hits, 80 runs, and had a WHIP of 1.593.
Hopefully, things will be better for him this year in that he stays healthy and productive.
Health is the key factor for Kopech as he has struggled to stay healthy. With a season filled with good fortune in that department, he could end up being one of the better pitchers the Sox have.
As it stands right now, without seeing a single spring training game, I feel that Kopech may be the third-best pitcher on the team (after Dylan Cease and Erick Fedde). That’s a lot to say right now but it just might be true when it’s all said and done.
My prediction is that with good health throughout the year, Kopech will indeed rise above most of the others in the starting rotation and be one of the best pitchers the White Sox have.
If he is unable to stay healthy, I think that he will get relegated to bullpen duty and eventually either stay there permanently or fade away. I would like to think he will have a breakout season and be a better pitcher but it all boils down to whether he can stay healthy. That’s had the biggest effect on his career.
The White Sox may not shine this year, but certain pieces might step up and do well. I think that the top of the starting pitching lineup will be ok. I think that Cease, Fedde, and Kopech will be at the top of it all. The rest will fill in behind them and the Sox will go into the 2024 season with a pitching staff that has a lot of questions but could, at least, be stable.