Luis Robert and 3 White Sox who need to be benched ASAP

2. Michael Kopech needs to be benched by the White Sox

Hard-throwing right-hander Michael Kopech has been a source of excitement and optimism for White Sox fans for quite some time in his young career and it seemed like it was paying off over the last two seasons as he posted a 3.50 ERA in 2021 followed by a 3.54 ERA in 2022, including some truly dominant outings a year ago.

Toward the end of last season, though, there were some concerning performances from Kopech and, unfortunately, that’s been virtually all that we’ve seen from the righty at the start of the 2023 season.

In five starts this year, Kopech has a 7.01 ERA and 1.71 WHIP hanging over him, which looks even worse when paired with the 0-3 record he’s also sporting. And for what it’s worth, the White Sox are 1-4 in games started by Kopech.

Ironically, one of those losses came in the lone good performance from the hurler that he had this season, a 6.0-inning, two-hit, one-run showing against the Pirates on April 9 that Chicago lost 1-0.

Kopech has given up at least three runs and six hits in the four other starts this season, though, also struggling with control as he’s already walked 16 batters in just 25.2 innings on the year.

For a player who has elite stuff and showed so well a season ago, something has to be done to get him out of the funk that he’s clearly in right now at the start of 2023, and perhaps putting him on the pine and letting him try to get right is what he needs to get back and be a key cog on the back end of the White Sox rotation.