On and off field, White Sox phenom Kopech has room to improve

Michael Kopech is already good, but the feeling here is the Chicago White Sox's 22-year-old phenom is only going to get better - on and off the field.

Let's begin with the latter category as Kopech prepares to make his second major-league start Sunday afternoon against the Tigers at Comerica Park.

After the White Sox acquired Kopech, second baseman Yoan Moncada and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe from the Red Sox in a Dec. 6, 2016 trade for Chris Sale, the young pitcher owned up to a pair of off-field indiscretions that at one point had him seriously considering quitting baseball.

In July of 2015, when he was pitching for low Class A Greenville, Kopech was suspended 50 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

During spring training in 2016, he broke his pitching (right) hand after getting in a fight with a teammate and wasn't back on the mound until June.

"I feel I've handled quite a bit of adversity, more than most people my age probably," Kopech said. "I failed a drug test and then I broke my hand. That was a complete year off. But I became more mindful as an athlete. I was already a hard worker, but I became a harder worker. I was trying to dig myself out of a rut."

Kopech did just that after joining the White Sox, but yet another controversy caught up with the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder on Thursday.

As a 17-year-old in 2013, Kopech posted racist and homophobic tweets that he later deleted.

General manager Rick Hahn addressed the issue with Kopech and came away satisfied.

"Michael has been very upfront about his tweets from high school several years ago," Hahn said in a statement. "He has taken responsibility and apologized for his offensive and inappropriate word choices at the time, but he has stressed that those careless words do not reflect who he is today.

"It is certainly true that they don't reflect the young man we know as a maturing, growing and developing member of our organization."

Maturing is the key word, and Kopech has shown admirable growth over the past two years.

Sox fans are going to ultimately decide if the Mount Pleasant, Texas, native is worthy of support, and the guess here is they forgive without totally forgetting.

Based on the rousing reception he got in Tuesday night's debut against the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field, another guess is Kopech remains a fan favorite for the remainder of this season and for years to come.

Having covered the White Sox for 25 years, senior VP of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer asked me if I'd ever heard a welcome like the once Kopech received.

Nope.

Kopech has a rare flair on the mound, and it doesn't hurt that he throws 98 mph fastballs with relative ease.

But for as impressive as he was in his rain-abbreviated debut against Minnesota, yet another guess is Kopech is much better at this point next season.

In his start against the Twins, 42 of his 52 pitches were fastballs, and that ran up Kopech's pitch count.

As he settles in and gains experience, look for Kopech to throw more curveballs, sliders and change-ups.

You could tell hitters throughout Minnesota's lineup - Joe Mauer in particular - were sitting on the fastball. You could also tell they were uncomfortable.

When Kopech feels comfortable enough to mix in more off-speed pitches, he has a chance to be just as good as Sale.

Yes, he has a grand total of 2 major-league innings under his belt, but Kopech is a special talent.

As he continues to grow on and off the field, Kopech is only to get better.

"At some point I'm going to have to throw my other pitches, but I feel comfortable throwing all my pitches right now," he said. "Being able to do what I can with that early on is pretty much the game plan every game."