PHOENIX — Prior to a laborious Saturday, and despite an offseason spent rehabbing from surgery on a torn right meniscus, any question about Michael Kopech generated effusive praise. And to its credit, the compliments were more nuanced than “his stuff looks great” or just rattling off his velocity.
“It’s the consistency with everything, with all his stuff,” pitching coach Ethan Katz said. “He’s throwing a curveball, he’s landing it. He’s throwing a slider, he’s landing it. He’s throwing a changeup, he’s landing it. Doing that along with also maintaining his pitch shapes, so it’s not the fluctuation of one great one and then losing it. It’s all continuously in flow every single time he’s throwing these pitches and filling up the zone every single time. That’s what’s been a lot different.”
Advertisement
“This is the best I’ve ever seen Kopech,” catcher Seby Zavala said. “He’s calm, collected. He is processing things a lot better than he has in the past. Last year was his first year starting through a full season, and I think that learning experience was good and he’s carrying it over real well into the season.”
After three perfect innings in his Cactus League debut — so absent of challenge that he had to throw in the bullpen to reach his pitch count — Kopech’s outing against the Dodgers on Saturday was in immediate logistic turmoil. Roughly 55 pitches after two innings necessitated the unique optics of having him come out for the third and fourth innings to face a single batter (allowed in spring training), to achieve the goal of having Kopech “get up” four times while not stretching his pitch count beyond what was allotted for the day.
Beyond the results, with some sharp singles leading to an unearned run in the first and a pair of walks, Kopech lost his grip on a couple of curveballs that sailed high, was dinged for a possibly incorrect enforcement of the disengagement rule and did not see his velocity climb from his debut. After sitting 94-95 mph in his previous turn and clipping 98 mph with one fastball, Kopech topped out at 95 mph and throttled down as low as 91 mph. Since he’s coming off a season in which his knee injury had similar effects on him, it was cause for him to restate how he feels physically.
“There’s still some things that my body’s getting used to. My knee is learning to get back to being ‘normal,’ rather than trying to find the adjustment to work around,” Kopech said. “I know (velocity is) something that wasn’t quite as much there today. I also know it’s something that will be there when I need it to be there. I’m just trying to make pitches right now. With that, velo will come. Same thing with my breaking stuff. I threw some breaking balls that were slower than I’d like today, but the shape was there and the efficiency was there on the ones I’m referring to. Ultimately, I know that’s going to pick back up and come back.”
Advertisement
It’s hard to imagine any pitcher having a straightforward spring progression, dominating every outing while their velocity climbs, and viewing that as detrimental. But manager Pedro Grifol likes to see mistakes so he can address them, and he lauded the benefit of getting reps and navigating difficult innings.
“He didn’t feel great, didn’t have his best stuff, but he competed,” said Grifol, who repeatedly stated he found the outing productive for Kopech. “I know everybody wants to go out and be great every day. But there’s a part of the mind that has to get prepared for a major-league season, and that only works when you face some adversity and you face some stressful situations and you’re not feeling good. That’s how I evaluate a successful day.”
Of course, the skills Grifol is touting can be vital considering injuries were a defining issue for this team the past two seasons. Navigating a spring without a significant injury-based setback would be a revelation. But other than the continued gut punch of Liam Hendriks’ diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, White Sox camp has been largely untouched by injury or the need to consider functioning without a core player beyond running a closer-by-committee system. Cautionary shutdowns from game action or slow buildups have yet to fester into a crisis at any roster spot.
Other than Dylan Cease continuing to sit 94-96 mph and spray his slider in the first inning of outings, Andrew Vaughn’s sore lower back is the most significant current test. Sunday marked a week since his last Cactus League appearance, but it also included him playing catch and taking groundballs with the training staff. He’s only trying to install some swing path tweaks while replacing a franchise legend as the everyday first baseman, so in a choice between starting the year healthy and setting Cactus League records, most fans would like to choose both, but Vaughn reiterates he’s opting for the former.
“I’d rather make it through a full season than a couple of spring training games,” said Vaughn, who forecasted a return to swinging a bat this week. “It’s probably been between 20 and 30 (at-bats this spring). I felt really good and (was) seeing the ball really well. Definitely going to get back on the machine and get as many at-bats as I can before Opening Day starts.”
Advertisement
“If he had to play today and this was a game that we had to win, I think you can make a case for him playing,” Grifol said. “He was here early. He did a lot of work. It doesn’t hurt anybody that has gotten that much work to take seven days or just get your body back in a place where you can crank it back up again.”
That last line was in response to the notion that Vaughn would even need to make up for lost reps by hitting off a pitching machine, since a return to game action this spring is still reasonable to anticipate. There’s still a week for every regular hitter to get hot, and another turn or two in the rotation for every starter to have a day where everything clicks into place and looks ready for the season.
Cease, now two starts removed from a disastrous spring start against the Royals, is still hovering around 95 mph with his fastball velocity and taking an inning to lock into commanding his dominant slider. He imagines the velocity will continue to climb with the intensity of the games he’s pitching in. He already knows the delivery key he’s trying to employ to make his slider land sooner. He can’t openly acknowledge the pitching schedule has been lined up for him to be the Opening Day starter less than two weeks from now in Houston, but he is far enough along to reflect on all of his troubles as spring training noise.
“I’m very pleased with where I’m at,” Cease said. “It’s one of those things where it’s not that funny in the moment, but I found that any time that you have something like that happen and you come out and have success, it just further develops confidence because it’s like I can dig myself out of something like that or I can come back from something like that. I think it was obviously not ideal, but I’m at a good spot now so we can laugh about it.”
(Top photo of Michael Kopech: Joe Camporeale / USA Today)