Michael Kopech has been called a future ace, a future star, a future Cy Young winner.
The latest comp for the White Sox top-ranked pitching prospect? A two-time World Series champ.
“I’ve never seen him when he’s not confident,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said Friday. “He’s got a tremendous mental makeup. Emotionally, I think he’s as driven as anyone I’ve seen. He’s wanting to go out there and perform and do extremely well.
“He reminds me a little bit of Josh Beckett. I had Josh Beckett back in Double-A quite a few years back. Same mentality. Has the ability to turn it up a notch when he thinks things are getting out of hand and continues to improve.”
Comparing Kopech to Beckett makes a good deal of sense. Beckett was a hard-throwing Texan just like the White Sox prized prospect, a guy who fans can’t wait to see firing fastballs past hitters on the South Side. Beckett was able to turn that Texas heat into a remarkable career, one that featured two World Series rings and three All-Star appearances, not to mention a World Series MVP trophy and a no-hitter.
Beckett was a dominant force as a 23-year-old while leading the Florida Marlins to their 2003 championship. He turned in a 2.11 ERA in his six appearances that fall, five of which were starts and two of which were complete-game shutouts, including one in the NLCS against the Cubs. He followed that up four years later with a 1.20 ERA in four playoff starts for the Boston Red Sox in winning the 2007 World Series. There was a complete-game shutout in there, too, quite a rare thing in these days of postseason pitching.
Will Kopech be that kind of a pitcher?
MLB
The White Sox and their fans certainly hope so. While plenty of other young arms are doing dazzling things in the minor leagues — Alec Hansen, Dane Dunning, Dylan Cease, to name a few — Kopech is the pitching prospect envisioned at the front of the rotation. In fact, that list of hoped-to-be homegrown pitching stars brings to mind those Marlins rotations of yesteryear, ones featuring Beckett, A.J. Burnett, Brad Penny and Dontrelle Willis.
Kopech's numbers so far this season at Triple-A Charlotte have been as expected. Through his first five starts, he’s got a 2.67 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 27 innings.
All this is great, you must be thinking. But you really want to know when he’ll hit the big leagues, right?
Well, as he’s been saying for some time now, Kopech believes he’s ready. And it wouldn’t be much of a hot take to suggest that at the start of this season he could have already been the best pitcher the White Sox had at any level of their organization, including the major leagues.
But there’s no rush to get Kopech to the bigs. With the rebuilding White Sox not expected to be in contention for any sort of postseason spot, Kopech’s readiness for the majors and the team’s place in the standings have nothing to do with each other. And while he might seem to be dominating every lineup he’s facing at Triple-A, there are still things the White Sox want him to work on before his development continues on to the big league level. Most notably, his changeup, which gets discussed regularly by White Sox brass.
“Obviously, he’s working on his changeup. It’s shown a lot better,” Renteria said. “Fastball command, again. Obviously, he has his breaking ball. But he’s starting to improve on his changeup usage, and it’s going to be something that he’s going to need to get people out with the fastball, a multi-dimensional pitch and his breaking ball to get balls in different levels of the zone.”
Kopech figures to be up sometime this summer. Until then, White Sox fans will have to settle for Triple-A highlights every fifth day and the continued comparisons to major league greats.
While South Side baseball fans would probably like to have another Beckett pitching at Guaranteed Rate Field, they’d love for Kopech to attain just one of Beckett’s achievements more than the others: those rings.