The White Sox have placed Michael Kopech on the 15-day injured list, as the right-hander is dealing with right shoulder inflammation. Righty Davis Martin has been called up from Triple-A to take Kopech’s spot on the active roster.
Though Kopech hasn’t pitched since September 13, there wasn’t any retroactive date attached to Kopech’s IL placement, and thus his 15-day clock starts today. That means Kopech will be out of action until at least October 2, and it is quite possible his season could be over if his shoulder issue isn’t healed. White Sox GM Rick Hahn told reporters (including MLB.com’s Scott Merkin) that tests didn’t reveal any structural damage, but while Kopech’s injury isn’t a long-term problem, his absence will hamper a Chicago team fighting to get into the 2022 postseason.
In his first full season as a starting pitcher, Kopech has a 3.54 ERA over 119 1/3 innings, but also a much less-flattering 4.73 SIERA. A tiny .229 BABIP has helped Kopech overcome below-average strikeout and hard-hit ball rates, as well as an 11.5% walk rate that is only in the tenth percentile of all pitchers.
This is Kopech’s second IL stint of the season, as he previously missed the minimum 15 days while recovering from a knee sprain in late August and early September. Since Kopech missed all of 2019-20 and then only threw 69 1/3 innings in 2021, there was some question about how much Kopech would pitch this season, and he has only hit the seven-inning threshold in two games. However, assuming that this shoulder injury is indeed just inflammation, Kopech has been relatively healthy in the wake of his increase in workload, and should be on pace for more of a normal starter’s routine in 2023.
Martin is the logical candidate to fill in for Kopech, and Martin will actually take the hill today against the Tigers — regular starter Johnny Cueto has been scratched due to a non-COVID illness. Martin has a respectable 4.09 ERA over 44 innings in his first MLB season, though counting on a rookie down the stretch isn’t an ideal situation for Chicago. After the Guardians’ win today, Cleveland holds a 4.5-game lead over Chicago in the AL Central, and the White Sox are also 6.5 games back in the wild card race.
Well, there’s 4+ innings they have to fill every five days……three more times. Martin can handle that.
It’s possible Kopech has been playing hurt, and with all the pressure to come back he wants to be part of it. But it’s dangerous, and we need him. He needs to sit out a bit and get healthy.
Great trade, Moncado and Kopech who do nothing for Chris Sale
How Sales helping the last place Red Sox.
The trade was absolutely a win for the Sox of Red. It was the extension that was the mistake. A colossal one at that.
Let Kopech sit, the White Sox are pretty much done, and Kopech has pitched far more than what he has done in the past. People can lambast him all they want, but he pitched pretty good this season, considering his lack of innings to this point (better than ‘Ace’ Giolito anyway). I think the White Sox have shown too little, too late. Barring a miracle of somehow sweeping the Guardians in three upcoming games AND still being able to win at least a game when the Guardians lose AND to keep winning games until the end of the season, I just do not see this team doing it. I mean they lost to a doormat of a team in the Tigers… again. A team supposedly built to ‘win it all’ does not lose such games. Not when the season is on the line. The Sox have under achieved all season (and that is putting it nicely, given the horrible play of this club and certain players). When they finally decided to start playing (better late than never?!), it was apparently due to Cairo taking over the club and challenging his team to their faces, and that worked…. for about 2-3 weeks, now it appears its business as usual again in letting a team like the Tigers shut you down for 7 innings. The White Sox org has a lot of soul searching and work to do this off season, especially if they want to try to get fans back in the stands after such a lame season they had this past season..
Spot on !
What an embarrassment the White Sox are, an absolute joke. They let an inferior team own them this year (well, one of many) and take the division from them. It’s like grade school football where the 5 foot, 100+ lb behemoth gets consistently tackled by the 4 foot, 60 lb weakling. How does that happen? And congrats to the G’s, they wanted the division far more than the Sox. Part of me wonders how the Sox didn’t easily win the division and the other part wonders how they were able to still have a chance for the division (at least before this series).
The Sox actually did me a favor, in regards to my pocketbook. I was planning on going to a few games this Summer. I was waiting all year for them to start to click, but apparently they waited until late August to click, “coincidentally” the same time TLR left the dugout with his health scare. I apologize for not being a true fan and drop probably $100+ per game for my wife and I to watch uninspiring Sox baseball at GR Field.
I don’t know what it will take for the Sox to get back on track next year, but the first blatantly obvious step would be to never let TLR back in that dugout ever again. Good luck moving the guys with contracts no one wants, because that’s what they’re going to need to do to right the ship (or hope they all bounce back next year).
Like I said at the beginning of the season, and many lambasted me for it, there were Sox players buying their hype (Im referring to Anderson, Moncada, Jimenez, and Robert specifically.. all guys that coincidentally got cushy contract extensions early). Meanwhile you had a Guardians team doing everything right, and whatever was wrong they continuously worked at it, because that org has a manager worth their salt and not an org that drug their manager out of retirement (and basically sandbagged their existing manager to do so) because their owner is loopy. The Sox org constantly lives in the past, its how they decide what FA players they should bring in, and apparently coaches now as well.. which is to say “how good was this guy in his prime?! I mean he is not in his prime now, but MAN was he good, sign him up!”. Do not get me wrong, I think any team in the central making the playoffs will not be there for long, but still, really poor showing, and one has to wonder two things:
-Would Renteria really had done worse?
-Did LaRussa being hired cause ire in the locker room (especially when it seemed like the younger players really liked Ricky)?
–If it did not, did him trying to get Yermin hurt last season what caused dissension in the locker room with his ‘unwritten rules?
-Cairo finally squeezed these guys and they played better, for about 2 weeks. I mean if the Sox simply took care of business in many of the early season games they lost due to poor situational hitting, poor base running, and poor fielding are they in this position now?
If they focused on the fundamentals, are they finding themselves looking at places to go golfing in the offseason? (Im guessing Francona did not forget fundamentals in the Spring with his club)