Let’s never forget that a Kopech who is often injured and who struggles with his command was one of the likely results of how the White Sox treated him.
Guy hasn’t pitched competitively in 2 and a half years. The last time he was out, he struggled with command until July, it took him nearly 100 straight innings as a starter to find good control. In June he had a game where he walked 6 I think, then he cut that walk rate a ton in July.
This profile says the guy needs innings, repetition, in a lower stress setting like AAA. if he doesn’t get them, the risk is he will struggle with control and with health, but hey maybe you get that precious middle relief. And now? He struggles with exactly those things, who could ever have seen that coming?
When you make a lot of decisions that could sacrifice 2023 to make your 2021 team better, you can’t be all that surprised when some of those moves turn out to actually hurt your 2023 team.