The Chicago White Sox are a team in transition. They moved on from Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams and Chris Getz took their jobs.
Now, it is time to finish out this season so that they can move on to the 2024 season. It is unclear what the direction will be under the leadership of Getz but we will soon find out.
There are a ton of players that will have decisions made about them this off-season and one of them is Michael Kopceh.
Kopech has had a very up-and-down career with the Chicago White Sox so far. After coming to the White Sox with Yoan Moncada in the Chris Sale deal, he continued his development in their minor league system.
The Chicago White Sox have been up and down with Michael Kopech.
When he made his MLB debut in the summer of 2018, it took him only a few starts to require Tommy John surgery. That took him out for the entire 2019 season as well.
He opted out of the 2020 season and then finally returned in 2021. This time, however, he came back as a reliever so that the organization could ease him into things.
Well, Kopech was a super-weapon in that role. He could go one inning or four and was very good at executing his pitches.
In 2022, he came back and was a starter once again. In both 2022 and 2023 as a starter, there have been some great games but there have been even more underwhelming ones.
There have also been a few (much less significant than Tommy John) injuries for Kopech that he has had to deal with. Between injuries and inconsistencies, things haven't really gone according to plan.
Ahead of the game on Friday in Detroit, however, manager Pedro Grifol gave a wild update that may surprise people but it also makes sense.
Kopech will move to the bullpen for the remainder of the season but Grifol stressed he's viewed as a starter for '24
— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) September 8, 2023
Kopech is going into the bullpen for the rest of the season. He won't make his regularly scheduled start on Saturday. Instead, he will be available in the pen.
This is something that worked for Kopech in the past. However, Grifol did want to make sure that people know that he is seen as a starter in 2024.
Regardless, all we want to see is the White Sox get him back to being a great pitcher. We know his stuff is great but they need to get him going with it again.
This could be a smart step. We'll see how it goes from here.