Last year's on-field results don't make for much of a resume item, nor was Thursday's choppy scoreless eighth a proof of concept, but Michael Kopech is probably the most prominent example of a player who has connected with manager Pedro Grifol. He often directly references their conversations, and speaking with him Opening Day, it happened again as Kopech talked about them discussing the importance of not merely making peace with his move to the bullpen.
"It's one thing to accept something, it's another thing to embrace it," Kopech said. "At this point in my career, I can't afford to just accept the role and have any resentment or withholdings about it. I have to be able to embrace it and give the best part of myself on the field to help my team and give us a chance to win. That's where we're at. With the stuff I have and have shown this spring, I'm comfortable with the role."
Three hitless appearances out of the bullpen to close out the Cactus League season lent a note of confidence to Kopech's transition to short stints. Removed of the disappointment of being moved out of the rotation, and you can notice the exhale as Kopech talks about no longer having to obsess over his changeup. Sure enough, in his season debut on Thursday, Kopech's 16 four-seamers and eight sliders encompassed his whole pitch mix, and that figures to largely remain the case all season.
In relief, the enticing top-line items in Kopech's profile are now all he needs to really worry about to carry him through an inning. He's back to throwing one slider again, and rather than a bigger sweeper that he struggled to command, it's something fitting the one mode he's always been able to operate in: hard. A more vertically-oriented bullet spin slider was Kopech's saving grace in an otherwise erratic inning Thursday, in which he walked and hit a batter with wayward heaters.
The spring training emphasis that Brian Bannister placed on Kopech to embrace some of the natural horizontal rotation in his delivery obviously didn't suddenly generate a level of command that allowed him to stave off a move to the pen. But after cracking triple digits on his fastball while airing it out in relief in Arizona, and sitting 96 mph on a cold Opening Day, Kopech is still feeling better suited to let it eat.
"Instead of trying to be so fine and so perfect with my mechanics to throw the perfect fastball, I'm just embracing what my mechanics look like and moving quickly through that motion, it's showing better fastballs," Kopech said. "I can work quickly through my natural motion without trying to fight something. When I was trying to stay a little bit more vertical and upright, it was fighting what my body naturally did. Instead of just embracing that this is how I move quickly, so let's move efficiently, which is moving in my natural movement pattern."
Can Kopech tackle left-handers as more of a fastball-slider pitcher with more spin toward the first base side in his delivery? Probably not as easily as was once envisioned. But in the role he's been shifted to, more reliably delivering his strengths is the goal.
Jordan Leasure's curve
For a 25-year-old right-hander who throws riding mid-to-high-90s four-seamers out of a unique vertical slot with premium extension that is reminiscent of Spencer Strider, Jordan Leasure has his third pitch discussed a lot.
"What we really focused on was that third pitch to combat left-handed hitters," said Chris Getz. "We played around with a curveball that he really took to, and he took that into the Arizona Fall League and was productive with it. Fast forward to spring training and he had three really solid weapons for him to combat both-sided hitters. And you look at all the arms we had in spring training, I have a tough time finding a guy who was more productive than Jordan Leasure."
Leasure's starter kit resembles that of a high-leverage reliever more than most in the White Sox bullpen mix, but across both Double and Triple-A last season, left-handers had a .230/.329/.554 line against him. It's very much a third pitch and has not suddenly become Leasure's signature offering, but a curveball out of a high slot can mirror his four-seamer enough to be useful if he can drop it in for early strikes.
"I feel like it’s come a long ways," Leasure said. "I feel really confident right now. It’s not going to be a pitch I use too much but whenever I need it, I feel I can go to it. I actually threw it against lefties in the spring and kind of saw what it can do. I got a lot of good feedback from the hitters in the spring using that early in the count. I’m looking forward to taking that into the season."
