Christopher Morel and Michael Kopech, two big parts of Chicago baseball rebuilds, left town in a 24-hour span before Tuesday’s trade deadline.
They were very different players but shared an ability to electrify their respective fan bases.
The Cubs’ Morel was a bright spot when he came up from Double A in 2022, infusing the clubhouse with energy and charming his way into the good graces of Wrigley’s heartiest skeptics. Kopech was a key to the White Sox rebuild after being acquired from Boston at the 2016 Winter Meetings, and his arrival on the South Side six years ago next month was seen as an indication Rick Hahn’s rebuild was succeeding.
But Morel’s trade Sunday to the Tampa Bay Rays in the deal that brought back former Cubs prospect Isaac Paredes was an admission from Cubs president Jed Hoyer they could never find him a full-time position and needed to cut bait. The departure of Kopech to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday in a three-team trade that brought back an unproven shortstop in Miguel Vargas and two prospects was an admission by general manager Chris Getz that the Sox had given up on Kopech ever becoming a star.
You can’t really blame Hoyer or Getz for feeling that way. The numbers don’t lie. Morel couldn’t play third. Kopech was not a reliable closer. And so it goes …
When it comes to pitching, “wash, rinse, repeat” has been the motto of White Sox management for several decades:
Step One: Draft or acquire a prospect.
Step Two: Develop him into a major-league pitcher.
Step Three: Wait until he’s valuable enough to make some real money.
Step Four: Watch him walk away via free agency or trade him for more prospects.
Step Five: Return to Step One.
I was the Tribune’s Sox beat writer in the mid-1990s and watched it happen to aces Alex Fernandez and Wilson Álvarez. I watched from the other side of town when Mark Buehrle, who should have been a Sox lifer, was forced to leave for Miami in 2011. I was back covering both teams in 2016 when Chris Sale went to the Red Sox for Kopech and Yoán Moncada, the first salvo of the new rebuild. And I knew Carlos Rodón also knew he was a goner in ’21 after he threw his no-hitter in mid-April.
Due to an unwritten philosophy of avoiding long-term deals with starters, a specialty of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, no one is able to stick around the Sox long enough to get their market value. Garrett Crochet is likely next in line, though Getz told reporters Monday that the pitcher’s demand of a contract extension from any team wanting him to pitch in October was “hurtful.”
“That’s not exactly the tactic I would have taken, even being a former player quite honestly,” Getz said.
Of course, every team would’ve laughed at Getz if he’d demanded more money as a player. But that’s another story.
“I was a little surprised by it,” he continued. “I was. I think most fans and even players without knowing everything, it makes sense. We understand why a stance would be taken. Now how you go about expressing that is what was a bit hurtful, quite honestly, considering I felt like we could have handled it a little bit differently and still I think everyone accomplished what they wanted to accomplish.”
Whatever happens with Crochet, most of the “haul” of young pitchers from the Hahn rebuild are gone. Kopech, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Dylan Cease arrived in 2016 and ’17, replacing Sale and Jose Quintana before they became too expensive to re-sign.
Getz’s return for Kopech, Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham seemed more like a payroll dump than anything else. Fedde was supposed to be one of the top available starters. What happened? Pham was a proven mercenary who performed last October. Now he’s a throw-in to the St. Louis Cardinals?
The loss of Kopech stings the most. Not only was he the key pitching acquisition of Hahn, but he probably had the most upside of any Sox starter since Sale. Why he was never able to translate that talent to stardom is up for debate:
Was it Kopech’s fault, or was it the Sox’s?
López used his exit from the White Sox last summer to reinvent himself as a starter. After finishing ’23 in the bullpen with the Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians, he went into free agency hoping to convince a team he could start. The Atlanta Braves took a flier with a three-year, $30 million deal, and López turned into a National League All-Star. He was 7-4 with a 2.06 ERA before leaving Sunday’s start with right forearm tightness.
After dropping him from the rotation in 2021, the Sox never gave López a chance to return. But it should be noted that he never asked.
“They told me they loved the way I was throwing in the bullpen in ’21, and after that I just saw my career as being a reliever,” López told me at the All-Star Game. “The Braves gave me the chance to start again, and now I’m just taking advantage of it. My wife was the one who showed faith in me. She told my agent ‘Let’s find a team that can start him.’ The Braves said (yes), and I’m like, ‘OK, let’s give it a shot.’ It’s crazy.”
Lopez said while he enjoyed his time with the Sox, leaving was the best thing that could have happened. He told me he hoped former Sox teammate Eloy Jiménez would be traded as well.
“Hopefully Eloy can get out of there,” he said. “He can get some new air, a new clubhouse. It’s just way different here.”
Kopech went from starter to middle reliever, back to starter and ending his storied Sox career as a closer. His major-league debut on Aug. 21, 2018, at Sox Park was one of the biggest events of the rebuild. Dozens of fans crowded around the bullpen watching him warm up before the game, taking videos like it was a visit to Lourdes.
He lasted only two innings because of a rain delay, got injured in his fourth start, missed 2019 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and took off 2020 for personal reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic. But he was instrumental as a set-up man in the division-winning season of ’21 and earned a chance to start in ’22.
The move to the bullpen last spring was clearly a demotion after he posted a 5.43 ERA in 2023 and issued a league-high 91 walks. Kopech accepted the new role without complaint, but being a closer on the 2024 White Sox was challenging. He went long stretches without save opportunities and was inconsistent. If the return from the three-way trade is any indication, the market for Kopech was not strong. Stardom eluded Kopech in Chicago, but perhaps Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior can unlock a door that Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz could not.
And maybe Morel will find a steady position in Tampa Bay and become the All-Star talent Hoyer envisioned back in ’22. Both will be missed by fans, teammates and the media.
But, like López, they’ll soon discover an escape from Chicago is not necessarily a bad thing.
