As Kopech leaves White Sox, he 'won't ever forget it'

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- Michael Kopech sat in the White Sox dugout at Guaranteed Rate Field one last time Monday evening, as he prepared to take his family to Los Angeles after being traded to the Dodgers as part of a three-team deal also involving the Cardinals.

The 28-year-old right-hander is not the same man as the one who made his Major League debut to much hoopla and fanfare on Aug. 21, 2018. And I’m not talking about going from a starter to a reliever.

“What I’m going to look back on the most [is], I felt like I grew up here,” Kopech told reporters. “Came here as a young player, and I’ve got a family now and a little bit of a different perspective on the game.

“I’m leaving a different man than I was when I came here. Very appreciative of my time here. Won’t ever forget it, for sure.”

Kopech joined the White Sox on Dec. 6, 2016, along with third baseman Yoán Moncada, as part of the four-player return from Boston in the Chris Sale trade. It was the beginning of the rebuild overseen well by then-general manager Rick Hahn, but missing the end goal of a World Series championship or even a playoff series win.

Unfortunately, in the scheme of baseball, those are chasmic misses.

Even with this core falling well short, Kopech leaves Chicago with great memories. He pointed to Blackout Game No. 2 at Guaranteed Rate Field in 2021, when he worked 2 1/3 innings during a come-from-behind 12-6 victory over the Astros in Game 3 of the ALDS, as his greatest White Sox moment and one that holds “a special place in my heart.”

Recent memories are quite different, with the White Sox losing a combined 183 games between last season and this one.

“Those struggles we’ve gone through the past couple of years, I felt all of them,” Kopech said. “I was here as a teammate and a player, part of this organization, wanting to win as bad as anyone else.

“To see guys out there fighting every day to try to get out of this rut that we were in as a team, all that really can be said is I know guys are trying, and I know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and it’s going to turn for them. I’m glad to have gone through that with them and not just seen it from afar.”

Social media reaction to the closer’s departure was mixed from an understandably disillusioned White Sox fan base. Kopech is an exceptionally good man, a straightforward individual who talked about everything from dealing with the yips while pitching at Triple-A Charlotte in 2018 to his family dynamic to his highs and lows with the White Sox. He was never afraid to be honest.

With the raw stuff Kopech possesses in his arsenal, and the position he’s in as a person and as a player, he could be poised to take off with the Dodgers.

“There’s a lot of things about me that have changed as a player. Some of that is mentality, some mechanical, what have you,” Kopech said. “And my personal life has been, debatably, even more change.

“I’m proud of where I am as a man in my life, I’m proud of where I am going to finish my journey as a White Sox and proud of the faith I’ve built being able to play this game. God has his hand in everything, and this move for me right now, it feels like it’s where I’m supposed to be.”