The July 29 trade that sent Michael Kopech from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers was the baseball equivalent of going from Death Valley to the summit of Mt. Whitney for the hard-throwing reliever.
The White Sox were 15 games into an eventual 21-game losing streak, with a 27-82 record and 38½ games back in the American League Central, the day Kopech was acquired by the Dodgers in a three-team deal with Chicago and St. Louis.
And with a 29-93 record entering Thursday, the White Sox could challenge the 1962 New York Mets, who lost 120 games, for modern-era futility.
The Dodgers were 63-44 and had a 6½-game lead in the National League West on July 29, and they had an NL-best 71-50 record entering Thursday’s series finale at Milwaukee.
Not only did Kopech gain 46 games in the standings with the deal, but he also went from a rebuilding franchise on its way to a second straight 100-loss season to one seeking its 12th straight postseason berth with a $308-million payroll and star-studded roster featuring the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
But as happy as Kopech is to have landed in Shangri-LA, he does not feel like he escaped from some baseball hellscape to get here.
“It’s kind of hard to describe, because everyone would assume that it would have been a miserable clubhouse in Chicago, and that wasn’t necessarily true,” Kopech said. “The team actually meshed pretty well, and we got along. We were just, you know, fighting through some dark times together.
“Losing is its own feeling altogether. You show up every day and hopefully scrap one out, but to continue losing, it’s tough. Here … it seems like everybody meshes together really well. And then to continue that energy after a game when you’re riding a high from a win, it’s, to be cliche, all good vibes here. So it’s pretty cool.”
The Dodgers are loving the vibe Kopech has given off in his first two weeks, the right-hander giving up no runs and one hit in 20 at-bats in 6⅓ innings of his first six appearances, striking out 10 and walking one.
Kopech’s fastball has been electric — he’s averaged 98.7 mph with his four-seamer this season and touched 101 with a strikeout of Brewers pinch-hitter Jake Bauers on Monday night — and the Dodgers have encouraged him to mix in a few more cut fastballs and sliders.
“It’s just real top-end stuff, and it doesn’t matter if [the batter] is left or right,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s just such a beast. With that 100-mph fastball and cutter and his strike-throwing ability, it’s an uncomfortable at-bat. He’s definitely high on the trust tree right now.”
Kopech has provided a much-need balm for a bullpen that has lost key setup men Brusdar Graterol and Ryan Brasier to injury for most of the season, Blake Treinen to left-hip discomfort on Aug. 5 and closer Evan Phillips, who was demoted from the role in the wake of his mid-July struggles.
The current closer is 37-year-old right-hander Daniel Hudson, who entered Thursday with a 6-1 record, 2.02 ERA and nine saves in 50 games but missed most of the last two seasons because of surgeries on both knees.
“Any time you can add a guy like that to the back of your bullpen, it’s going to help,” Hudson said of Kopech. “It’s really good to have depth. Especially with me, Blake, Joe [Kelly], Brasier when he comes back … we aren’t spring chickens anymore, so we need days [off] here and there. It’s a special talent, a special arm, and I’m glad he’s on our side now, for sure.”
Kopech, who moved to the bullpen after spending his first three seasons with the White Sox as a starter, quickly carved out a high-leverage role with the Dodgers, and the way he is throwing, he could seize the closer job by September.
“We’ll see,” Roberts said Monday night, when asked if he would consider moving Kopech to the ninth inning. “We’ve got time.”
Kopech, who went 2-8 with a 4.74 ERA in 43 games for the White Sox — including an immaculate inning (nine pitches, three strikeouts) against the Minnesota Twins on July 10 — has thrown 50 innings over 49 games this season. The Dodgers have eased him into his role by not pitching him on back-to-back nights, but the burly 6-foot-3, 220-pounder feels ready to assume a heavier workload.
“They’re trying to give as many of us as much rest they can to prepare for this final stretch that we’re going to go on,” Kopech said. “But I’m happy to pitch every day, as long as my body is allowing it and the situation calls for it. But that’s not a decision for me. It’s a decision for them.
“You know we’re after a championship here, and to come in and for things to not necessarily be demanded of me, to just kind of fit into wherever I fit in and let the rest of the team do what they’re going to naturally do, is pretty easy. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Kopech, who is on a one-year, $3-million contract, is under club control for 2025 and will not be a free agent until 2026, so he is more than a rental player for the Dodgers. He will figure prominently into the team’s plans next season, most likely as a reliever, but he hasn’t closed the door on a possible return to the rotation.
“I spent so long as a starter that I don’t know if I’m ready to just commit to being a reliever,” said Kopech, a 2014 first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox who was one of four prospects traded to the White Sox for Chris Sale at the winter meetings in 2016.
“But at the same time, that’s the job I have now, that’s the role I’m in now, and whatever I can do to help the team win a championship, I’ll be happy to do.”