{"id":76832,"date":"2024-06-15T11:05:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T15:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=76832"},"modified":"2024-06-15T11:05:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T15:05:32","slug":"chicago-white-sox-closer-teams-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/15\/chicago-white-sox-closer-teams-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox Closer Drawing Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago White Sox pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopecmi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-15_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Kopech<\/a> is attracting interest from several teams. The hard-throwing 28-year-old RHP needs some fine-tuning. This season, he has a 2-6 record with a 4.91 ERA. Some teams that are interested in him are the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n<h2>Chicago White Sox Closer Drawing Interest<\/h2>\n<h3>Michael Kopech<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Yankees?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Yankees<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Royals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Phillies?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Phillies<\/a> among teams looking at hard-throwing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WhiteSox?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WhiteSox<\/a> righty:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JrSlOuVFVC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/JrSlOuVFVC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/quM0VGQbPQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/quM0VGQbPQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mlbtraderumors\/status\/1801669840249196915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/07\/white-sox-open-for-business-trade-deadline\/\" target=\"_self\">The White Sox<\/a> are looking like the number one seller&#8217;s team with the trade deadline remaining six weeks out. Kopech continues to be talked about amongst teams. Each team has moved forward with sending scouts to analyze and overlook Kopech&#8217;s pitching. Rival clubs understand that the Sox need controllable pitching in return. A controllable pitcher doesn&#8217;t rely on velocity compared to a power pitcher. This will be Kopech&#8217;s first season pitching as a reliever on a full-time basis. The White Sox moved Kopech to the bullpen in March of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Kopech spent some time as a reliever in his career but overall has spent more time as a starter. He made 52 starts with the Sox in 2022-23. Kopech has taken on the role as the team&#8217;s go-to closer. Unfortunately, he&#8217;s only picked up five saves this season due to the team&#8217;s worst season. His bullpen role started on a positive note, but recently, he&#8217;s been struggling. He recorded eight earned runs over his past 6 1\/3 innings, which has raised his ERA to close to five.<\/p>\n<h3>What Kopech Offers<\/h3>\n<p>Despite his struggles, Kopech still brings a lot to the table. He was once known as an elite pitching prospect. Kopech possesses a powerful weapon that makes him stand out. This season, he\u2019s represented an electric 98.7 mph on his heater and struck out 32.3% of his opponents. Kopech\u2019s 14.1% swinging-strike rate is much higher than the league average. However, his power arsenal presents some command issues that must be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever team scoops up, Kopech can help him work on and fine-tune his command issues. Sometimes, a pitcher also thrives in a new environment. Kopech has walked 13.5% of his batters in 2024 and has recorded a displeasing 13.6% mark going back to 2022. In addition to his bat-missing ability, Kopech is a controllable and affordable pitcher on the market. He\u2019s banking $3 million in 2024 and would be qualified for arbitration this winter. After the 2025 season, he would be a free agent. Kopech&#8217;s power arm would do many teams justice for some pennant chasers. Furthermore, Kopech would provide any team that is contending with a heater that can reach the triple mark.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: <em>Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech is attracting interest from several teams. The hard-throwing 28-year-old RHP needs some fine-tuning. This season, he has a 2-6 record with a 4.91 ERA. Some teams that are interested in him are the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Kansas City Royals. Chicago White Sox Closer Drawing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":76843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1071],"tags":[2174,51,771,69,4527,41,268],"class_list":["post-76832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whitesox","category-mlb","tag-closer","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-michael-kopech","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-trade-rumors","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}