The first Cactus League games haven’t even been played, but there’s already seemingly an answer to two of the major storylines coming in. New White Sox manager Tony LaRussa explained the early plan for talented pitcher Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet in a radio interview on 670 The Score on Friday morning.
The Crochet part isn’t a big surprise. Last June’s first-round pick made it to the majors as a reliever and was impressive right away. He is good enough to pitch in the majors. The only question is when the White Sox pull the trigger on getting him some innings as a starting pitcher.
So far, Crochet is on the Chris Sale development plan. Sale was drafted in the first round back in 2010 and debuted in August of that year. He spent all of 2011 in the bullpen before moving to the rotation full-time in 2012.
Sale pitched 71 innings as a reliever in 2011. He ramped up to 192 the next year as a starter. The major difference is that Sale had more college innings to fall back on. In two seasons as a college starter, Sale pitched 89 1/3 and 103 innings. Crochet has 13 college starts in his career. He moved between the bullpen and the rotation his first two years while the pandemic limited him to one start as a junior.
If the White Sox plan to get Crochet about 70 innings out of the bullpen this year, it would be more than any season he had at Tennessee. It won’t be easy to ramp up to the 200 or so innings expected of a starting pitcher in 2022. The argument for having Crochet get some starts in Triple-A this year is that he needs innings. However, Crochet can help the big league club immediately and maybe they can sneak in a few starts for him in 2021.
The story for Kopech is somewhat similar. After suffering an elbow injury shortly after his debut in Sept. 2018, Kopech missed the 2019 season and then opted out of the 2020 season. He made only one spring training appearance, lasting one inning, before play was halted.
Like with Crochet, Kopech can help right away. However, two years off isn’t going to make it easy for Kopech to hit even 100 innings this year. At least in his case, Kopech pitched 134 1/3 innings in 2017 and 140 2/3 innings in 2018.
It will be interesting to see how the White Sox plan to use Kopech in 2021. He will start in the bullpen, according to LaRussa, but he has only one relief appearance in his professional career. Will he suddenly be rivaling Crochet with 101 mph fastballs out of the pen?
The White Sox have three standout starting pitchers in Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn. Dylan Cease is solid enough for a fourth starter. After that though? Reynaldo Lopez and Carlos Rodon are far from sure things, even as fifth starters. There might be times when the Sox want to turn to Kopech or Crochet for some starts. It would seem that’s more likely with Kopech, but who knows. They may be starting the season in the bullpen, but things can and will change over the course of a long baseball season.
Photo credit: Clinton Cole/FutureSox
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There’s speculation that Michael Kopech will be used as a piggyback opener along with Carlos Rodon in order to monitor their early season workloads in the wake of last season’s abbreviated COVID-19 schedule. Innings pitched limits are needed for both due to Kopech’s 2020 opt-out and Rodon’s injury history during the past 4 seasons. The White Sox want both pitchers available down the stretch and into the postseason.
Garrett Crochet will also be considered for a multiple inning role in order to stretch him out as a potential starter as soon as 2022. Crochet figures to be on the same time-scale plan the White Sox utilized with Chris Sale early in his career. The preference is to have both Kopech and Crochet working directly with new pitching coach Ethan Katz at the MLB level rather than keeping them down at AAA Charlotte to open the season.
I agree wholeheartedly with that approach to both of those guys. I just hope that the new pitching coach is as good as advertised with these young pitchers. I was a Cooper fan but the game, I think, did pass him by. The Sox have an amazing stockpile of great arms, especially right handers some of whom appear to be ready to prove themselves at the major league level both as starters and also in the pen. Katz is going to have his hands full with all of this real talent. When you think about it, this guy really is being given a large responsibility for the future of this team.
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