Finally.
Finally, the White Sox are calling up Michael Kopech.
The White Sox sprung the announcement on everybody at a good time — shortly after Reynaldo Lopez gave up five runs in the second inning of this afternoon’s game against the Royals. Kopech will start against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday:
IT'S HAPPENING: @MichaelKopech5 is coming to Chicago!
Tuesday night vs. Minnesota, #NextSox becomes #WhiteSox. Get your 🎟 now: https://t.co/oZQDCOjWFz https://t.co/JWTnilYuYQ
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 19, 2018
Kopech posted seven consecutive starts where he showed a reliable ability to throw strikes, and Triple-A hitters offered zero challenge. He posted a 1.84 ERA over those 44 innings, allowing 45 baserunners to 59 strikeouts, and didn’t face much in the form of jams in any of those outings.
James Fegan relayed some input from Seby Zavala:
Seby Zavala, who caught Kopech’s last start: “He’s real aggressive. He loves to come at you with the fastball and he’s going to come and challenge you.
"His fastball command has really gotten a lot better. His off speed stuff is really sharp right now. It’s really fun to catch.”
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) August 19, 2018
Kopech hasn’t yet hit a career high in innings — he’s at 126⅓, eight below his 2017 total — so it would’ve been hard to argue any developmental benefit of keeping him down in Charlotte for service-time purposes, and it probably would’ve been even more difficult telling him that to his face.
As it stands, he’ll be coming up on the same timeline as Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito did last year, and he’ll give the White Sox some sorely needed appointment viewing.
yay
Wonder what’s up with Eloy, now.
$$$$
Not going to debut him and Kopech at the same time.
I wouldn’t either. They both deserve to be individual events.
Judging from watching him run in Sunday’s game, my guess is Eloy is not 100%.
tickets, bought.
Kopech is awesome!! They announce he’s coming up and then the Sox get 6 runs in an inning!! Hallelujah!!
I hope this is his warmup music.
the kid’s from Texas. I thing “La Grange” by ZZ Top would suit him to a T.
La Grange should be the walk up music for every player in MLB.
I saw this kid last week. He gets the ball, he throws the ball. I love that. I want that.
Set expectations to “Right handed Buehrle who can throw 100 MPH”
Finally, indeed.
This puts Kopech in line to pitch against the Red Sox at the end of the month. That should be interesting.
Kudos to Hahn for making the right move. It’s also a signal that they will sign him when need be if he is the pitcher everyone thinks he is. Next up is Jimenez.
Also, hocking Kopech jerseys between innings at today’s game was a nice White Sox touch.
Literally the only thing I can see from the timing of this call-up (besides being on a similar track to Lopez and Giolito), is preserving rookie status for 2019? but that seems far too petty to matter, right?
its prolly more like at this point he had been in charlotte for an entire year as he was promoted to charlotte on august 19th of 2017 as well and pitched on the 21st just as he will be doing in this promotion
https://www.milb.com/charlotte-knights/news/kopech-set-to-start-monday-for-knights/c-249791268
That’s not so crazy. Good marketing for 2019 to get people and free agents excited about 2020. If Kopech and Eloy are battling for ROY, it’ll gain a lot of media, exposure, etc.
Wow a Tuesday evening game. Wonder if it’ll break 20k which is unheard of for that timing. Hell an announcement like this should break 25k.
I predicted that they would wait until they could retain rookie status for Kopech and Jimenez for 2019 before calling them up. Kopech could make 8 starts before the end of the year. I predict they shut him down once he approaches 50 IP.
but why? what does the team have to gain from doing that?
Keeps them on the top prospect lists, which makes the FO look good for another half season at least. Also if they are trying to drum up hype for a big television contract at the end of 2019 it would be nice to have people tuning in to see a ROY candidate or two.
Not saying that they are great reasons from a baseball or fan perspective but for the org it makes sense. The hype surrounding what Soto and Acuña are doing is insane and if the White Sox can capture a bit of that national attention that they are missing out on with Moncada struggling then they’ll go for it.
At this point, they have nothing to lose by doing it. Quite frankly, I’m 100% fine with that reasoning now. Great way to generate a lot of buzz next year.
If you would’ve asked that question 2 months ago, the argument would’ve sounded absolutely ridiculous. But considering where we are today, the difference between him throwing ~50 MLB innings or ~60 is minimal. No point not to retain his rookie status now.
No one goes to games in April/May anyways
I’d bet they try to limit him to around 35 innings the rest of the way. He’s 12 innings shy of his career max already.
Hi everyone, longtime lurker, first time commenter!
Have they announced a corresponding roster move? If not, do they need to?
They will need to add him to the 40-man, which will not require a corresponding move. They’ll likely wait to make the active roster move, which will require a corresponding move, until he’s officially added on Tuesday.
Thank you for clarifying. Who does everyone think they’ll send down? Any chance they go with Yoan, or will they stick with a pitcher, such as Gomez? I’ve defended Moncada whenever anyone has asked about his struggles, but at this point, I would understand if they wanted him to stop the bleeding and work out an improved approach in Charlotte.
Don’t think Yoan will be going anywhere. Charlotte’s season ends in 2 weeks and RR is already having trouble managing a 13 man staff.
My $ is on Danish.
Welcome
Welcome, fellow former lurker!
Who was previously scheduled for this start? Covey?
Would have been Rodon’s turn, but they are pushing him back a day. Unless Shields gets traded in the next couple days, I’m pretty sure Covey is heading to the bullpen.
Hahn on Cap n Company this morning – good Kopech stuff but it sure sounded like Eloy staying in minors this year.