When it comes to The Charlotte Knights this year, White Sox fans have only been truly concerned about two names: Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech. For the majority of 2018, only Eloy has been lights out since spring. Kopech on the other hand has had a few ups and downs. Recently though, he has been lights out and one of the best pitching prospects in the minor leagues.
Michael Kopech’s night is done in Rochester: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, 69 of 96 for strikes and lowered his season ERA down to 3.81.
More notably, his last nine starts:
53 IP, 42 H, 13 ER, 14 BB, 73 K, 2.21 ERA— James Fegan (@JRFegan) August 12, 2018
With Kopech, the biggest thing he needed to work on at AAA was fine tuning his secondary pitches and limiting his walks. Well, he has done both of those things exceptionally well, especially the past month and a half of the season. If you hear him in interviews, you can tell that he is starting to get frustrated for still being in Charlotte. His latest Instagram post (or more specifically the caption) provides further evidence of this claim.
Nothing left to say is right. If I were Kopech I’d be pissed off that I’m still in Charlotte. Especially after he has done everything asked of him. They could be waiting until September 1st when the rosters expand, but if that’s true then I don’t really see the logic behind it. Dylan Covey has been horrendous minus one gem against Seattle. The White Sox could use him as a long reliever and throw Kopech into the rotation for the remainder of the year. Or if they are afraid of burning Kopech out, they could easily go with a six man rotation for the rest of the season.
Then there’s the argument to be made for his service time. Like Eloy, the White Sox would gain an extra year of team control if they keep him in AAA until the middle of April 2019. While this makes financial sense, it has to piss off both Kopech and Eloy. It won’t matter if the White Sox wait an extra year to pay them if they don’t want to be here anyways when they get to choose. It would be smart for the organization to show both Kopech and Eloy good faith and reward them for their stellar seasons with a promotion to the big leagues.
It was one thing for begging the organization to promote Kopech just because other starters were playing poorly. But now that Kopech is dominating AAA more than ever before AND Covey is still failing, it is only logical to do the right thing and promote him ASAP.
