Kopech eager for 'fresh slate' of 2024

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.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Michael Kopech enters the 2024 season 20 pounds lighter and with the memories of a dismal ’23 campaign in the rearview mirror.

“Clean slate is a good way to describe it,” Kopech told a group of reporters Thursday at Camelback Ranch. “Last year, as a team, we had plenty of woes. As an individual, I had just as many.

“I’m excited to come in feeling healthy, ready to go, ready to compete, ready to build a new culture within the team. It’s something we are all pretty fixated on. Kind of a fresh start.”

At 27, Kopech begins his seventh big league season with the White Sox. The right-handed hurler only has played in parts of four of those due to Tommy John surgery costing him 2019 and his decision to sit out during the pandemic-shortened campaign of ‘20.

He’s an ideal player for a reporter to cover, being low-key but forthright and willing to talk about the good and bad times of his career. There were good times in 2023, with Kopech allowing one hit with 10 strikeouts over eight innings against the Royals on May 19 and following that up with seven scoreless at Cleveland on May 24, including two hits given up and nine strikeouts.

But his second half was forgettable, posting an 8.10 ERA over 14 appearances (11 starts). Kopech came to the White Sox from Boston in the 2016 Chris Sale deal as one of the best pitching prospects in the game, and now he’s ready to fulfill lofty expectations in ’24.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily the pressure of what people expect from me that’s something I’m trying to live up to. It’s more so what I expect of myself,” Kopech said. “I have capabilities that I haven’t shown at this level yet and there’s still that edge that I want to be able to provide to the team and help the team compete to win a championship. And in order to do that, I need to live up to my potential.

“So, that’s something that’s very much a focus of mine. … A big part of having a bounce-back year is understanding what you’re putting behind you. We don’t want to dwell on last year, but at the same time, we need to learn from the mistakes that were going on. To recognize those and address those and to not go back to those I think is important.”

Being healthy also is important. Kopech had a cyst removed from his right knee in late September 2023 after having his right meniscus repaired to end his ’22 effort in September. The cyst had bothered him all year, but he’s in a good spot now.

“If you look at his body, and you look at the shape he's in, how strong he is and how lean he is, you realize that it was affecting him a little bit,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He's strong, he's mentally strong.”

“Right now, I feel like I’m able to move well, [the] ball is coming out well,” Kopech said. “I’m getting into positions [that were] difficult to get into the past couple of years. My movement patterns are cleaned up. I’m excited to see how that translates to the mound.”

Thirty starts would be the basic 2024 goal for Kopech, who made a career-high 27 starts in ’23 to go with his career-best 134 strikeouts over 129 1/3 innings. But the main target for Kopech is team directed, working to get everyone prepared and working together for what they hope is a winning season.

“There’s not a whole lot of pressure on us because there’s not a whole lot of expectations on us,” Kopech said. “We have the ability to impress a lot easier than people might expect.”