How Has Michael Kopech Improved Since Being Traded to the Dodgers?
The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired an underperforming reliever from Major League Baseball’s worst team and transformed him into a high-leverage reliever who could become a closer before the season ends.
Heard this one before?
Michael Kopech was acquired at the trade deadline from the Chicago White Sox and after a few small tweaks, he has unleashed a beast almost overnight. He joins a long list of pitchers like Ryan Brasier, Alex Wood, Evan Phillips, Tyler Anderson, Phil Bickford, and others who have transformed their careers as Dodgers.
Since joining the Dodgers, Kopech has pitched nine scoreless innings and recorded two saves.
It’s hard to take his disappointing first-half numbers with Chicago seriously because the White Sox are so miserable. The change of scenery alone could have transformed Kopech but the Dodgers liked what they saw in one of the game’s hardest throwers.
Kopech relies on his fastball, which averages 98.8 mph. He also has a slider and a cutter which he mixes in. The cutter was a new weapon added this season and serves as a bridge between his fastball and his slider, in both movement and velocity. There was an 11-mph difference between the fastball and the slider last season, which him to incorporate a cutter.
Because of the cutter’s success, Kopech has abandoned his changeup altogether.
By the numbers, right-handed opponents in Chicago hit his four-seamer hard and he threw it 75 percent of the time and they struggled against his other two pitchers.
There was the first tweak – tone down the fastball usage.
With the Dodgers, Kopech is throwing his fastball 63 percent of the time. He’s also locating his cutter down and away rather than trying to pump it for a strike. You can see the difference in the graphic below:
The results for Kopech have been crazy good. Opposing righties are 1-for-16 with a walk and five strikeouts. He is getting whiffs on 44.4 percent of his pitches compared to 25.4 percent with Chicago. The whiff rate on his cutter is up from 33 percent to nearly 50 percent.
Kopech’s approach against lefties has changed completely. He no longer uses the slider against lefty batters and relies on his fastball 87 percent of the time. He also struggled with walks to left-handed batters in Chicago. That has reversed course in L.A.
While nine innings is a small sample size, the heat maps display the small changes that have taken Kopech from mediocre to brilliant in a short amount of time. It appears that if he continues following the script L.A. has written for him, success is sure to follow.
Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
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