Red Sox prospect Michael Kopech hoping his pitching erases a bad reputation
COMMENTARY
LOWELL — Michael Kopech gets it.
He understands how some Red Sox fans might consider the 20-year-old a veritable bad boy, especially considering the backwards progress the right-handed pitcher has made since Boston selected him in the first round (33rd overall) of the 2014 player draft.
He’s out to change that.
After all, he was 4-5 with a 2.63 ERA for Single-A Greenville of the South Atlantic League last summer before a 50-game, season-ending suspension came down for testing positive for the stimulant Oxilofrine. Then in spring training, Kopech further put good graces in the dangerous position of fading after he broke his right hand during a fight with a roommate.
Now, he has an opportunity to dig out of the 0-2 count in which he buried himself.
“I don’t want to be portrayed as a bad person by any means,” Kopech said Wednesday at Lowell’s LeLacheur Park, where he’ll take the ball Friday night in the season-opener for the Single-A Spinners. “I mean, the past is the past and I’m ready to just better myself.
“It’s been a rough year. But to have an organization that supports and backs me 100 percent of the way, it means a lot. Just shows that they never really gave up on me.”
For a franchise so bereft of pitching talent throughout the farm system, it stands to reason why the Red Sox would have helped Kopech turn things around. Major League Baseball ranks him as the fifth-best prospect in the pipeline (behind shortstop Yoan Moncada, third baseman Rafael Devers, outfielder Andrew Benintendi, and pitcher Anderson Espinoza), while Baseball Prospectus ranks him 98th overall.
Talent. Check.
Makeup? Um…
“It’s disappointing,” Red Sox general manager Mike Hazen said in March upon news that Kopech would be sidelined to start the season. “It’s very disappointing. It was stupid.
“He knows he’s going to have to grow up with the things that have happened so far. He’s got a long road to go to get to the big leagues. He obviously has a ton of talent and potential.
“You don’t want to put more barriers in front of you that professional baseball already presents to you.”
Kopech wouldn’t address the particulars of the situation on Wednesday, when Spinners players met with the media. But he did speak highly of his time in extended spring training, giving him a a chance to mature and pick a better path for his baseball career.
“I don’t want to say I was immature, but I definitely had some growing up to do. I think I’ve matured a lot in the past few months,” he said. “I’ve been stuck in Florida working on pitching, working on getting out of there. I had a lot of time to think. I think in the long run it helped me.
“I had to tell myself to put myself in better surroundings and better situations. It was kind of just wrong place, wrong time. I’ve matured a lot, I’ve taken myself out of surroundings like that, kind of troubling incidents, and purely focused on pitching. Straightening out, as cliché as that sounds. I’ve put all my focus back into the game of baseball.
“Not that it was ever really gone, but pitching is my passion. I want to keep it that way.”
According to his BP scouting report, Kopech has a fastball that has touched 100 miles per hour and sits in the mid-90s with “plenty of life.” The pitcher said that the extra time in Fort Myers gave him a chance to improve his changeup, the pitch that may end up determining Kopech’s future as a starter of reliever.
“I think I see myself as one of the five starters at Fenway one day,” he said. “Not that I think I’m better than anyone else in the organization because we have a lot of talent in the minor league system. But I think if I perform to the best of my ability then one day I can be one of the five at Fenway.”
Developing that kind of guy is not something the Red Sox have done historically well. For every Jon Lester, there is a Michael Bowden, highly-touted pitchers who failed to live up to their billing in the farm system. Henry Owens has been inconsistent at both the major league and Triple-A levels, fellow lefty Brian Johnson is dealing with an anxiety issue, and 2013’s seventh-overall pick Trey Ball has, thus far, been a disappointment.
Considering that Clay Buchholz is one of the most consistent pitchers the Red Sox have developed over the past decade is indicative of the results.
Then there’s Kopech, a guy who has already made his name known, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
“Right now I just feel like another piece to the puzzle,” he said. “Maybe a small piece at the time, but at some point hopefully I can be someone who can help out.”
Does he consider the events of the past year a step back in his hopeful progression to the majors?
“I think a lot of people would say that,” he said, “but honestly it’s unfortunate, but it happened, it’s in the past. I’m ready to keep going.
“It affected half of this year and then it won’t affect the second half. That’s the way I look at it. Second half of this year is going to be focused on me pitching.”
That starts in Lowell. Whether or not it might mean an eventual promotion to Double-A Portland laster this summer, however, still depends.
It will likely have a lot to do with what Kopech shows the Red Sox from a maturity standpoint.
“I had a lot of growing up to do,” he said. “I feel like I have. I was able to go down there [Florida] and work on myself as a person and work on myself as a pitcher. Bettering myself is all I’m here to do, and I just want to continue doing that.”
“I just want to get back to 100 percent. I think I’m there but I haven’t pitched under lights yet, I haven’t pitched in a stadium yet. So, my goal is to be better than I ever have been.”
On the mound.
Off the mound.
The top Red Sox prospects
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