'Extremely talented' Kopech ready to debut with White Sox
Eager White Sox fans are going to get their first look at Michael Kopech Tuesday night when the 22-year-old pitching prospect makes his major-league debut against the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field.
What can they expect to see? Let's use Steve McCatty as a guide.
"Michael has learned he has the ability to throw his fastballs for strikes, he's developed a really nice curve, a plus-pitch that has been a better pitch than his changeup, although his changeup has come along. He's always had the good slider. He's got four-plus pitches, the changeup being the one that's going to get better and better," McCatty said.
Now in his second season as Class AAA Charlotte's pitching coach after serving in the same role with the Nationals from 2009-15, McCatty got an up-close look at all 24 of Kopech's starts this season.
McCatty saw the 22-year-old righty go through a challenging stretch that started May 6 and ended July 5.
Kopech was 3-6 with a 5.69 ERA through the two-month slide, and he issued 47 walks over 55⅓ innings.
McCatty was also in the Charlotte dugout when Kopech went 4-0 with a 1.84 ERA in his last seven starts. Showing he was ready for the majors, he had 59 strikeouts and four walks in 44 innings.
What clicked for Kopech?
"He's more under control," McCatty said. "We talk about it all the time. Because you touch 100 mph, it doesn't mean you have to throw every pitch 100 mph. You don't have to always work at maximum velocity throwing it as hard as you can. We just work on finding something that's a little bit less, mechanics that were able to repeat consistently.
"If we have to dial it up a little bit, which is a pretty nice thing to sit at 96, 97 and you can dial it up to 100, he has been able to do that here. He's repeating his mechanics. And he's locating pitches. He's made a lot of progress."
Kopech, who was acquired from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale trade after the 2016 season, has the all the tools to be a major-league ace.
For now, the White Sox just want the affable Texan to get a taste of pitching at baseball's highest level.
"This is just the first step," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. "We expect him to continue to build off the success he's had in recent weeks. As I've talked about, development isn't always linear. There are going to be some challenges and there is going to be a bit of a learning curve.
"I think it's important that we all, both internally and externally, do the best we can to realize that's how development works and manage our expectations accordingly. He's an extremely talented kid; he's in a great spot right now. We're extremely excited about his future and none of that's going to change based upon one or two starts along the way. We're keeping a long-term focus on this thing."
Kopech threw 134⅓ innings last season with Class AA Birmingham and Charlotte, and he's logged 126⅓ innings this year.
The White Sox want Kopech to gain experience against major-league hitters over the final six weeks of the season, but they'll keep a close eye on his workload.
"We expect Michael to continue to take the ball every fifth day," Hahn said. "At the same time, we are soon going to be going into uncharted innings territory for him, so we're going to want to remain flexible and continue to monitor where he's at from a stuff standpoint and how he's feeling mechanically.
"If we have to adjust the rotation over the final stretch run we will do that. But at this time we anticipate Michael taking the ball every fifth day and sticking to a five-man rotation."