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Chicago White Sox place pitcher Michael Kopech on the bereavement list

lamond pope, chicago tribune
·2 min read

The Chicago White Sox placed pitcher Michael Kopech on the bereavement list Thursday, one of four roster moves announced by the team.

The Sox also purchased the contract of pitcher Ryan Burr from Triple-A Charlotte, sent reliever Jace Fry on a rehab assignment to Charlotte and transferred center fielder Luis Robert to the 60-day injured list.

Under Major League Baseball rules, Kopech must remain on the bereavement list for a minimum of three days and not more than seven.

The right-hander has been one of the more dependable pitchers on the staff as a reliever and spot starter. He is 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA, two holds, 45 strikeouts and a .180 opponents average in 13 games (three starts) this season.

Kopech pitched one scoreless inning Wednesday. He fell after delivering a pitch in the seventh and limped off the field as third baseman Yoán Moncada caught a popup for the final out. After the game, the Sox said Kopech had a sore left hamstring.

“He drove home to attend … an unfortunate occurrence,” manager Tony La Russa said Thursday. “You’ve got to give it 24, 48 hours to see. We have our fingers crossed it’s not something that’s going to last very long.”

Right fielder Adam Eaton, who left Wednesday’s game with right hamstring tightness, was not in the lineup Thursday against the Baltimore Orioles.

“Got rain, so the field’s sloppy the next couple of days so we’re going to be very careful with it,” La Russa said.

Burr was 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA, nine strikeouts and two saves in eight relief appearances with Charlotte this season. Burr, who turns 27 on Friday, went 1-1 with a 4.58 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 16 games (one start) with the Sox in 2019.

He retroactively was placed on the injured list May 25, 2019, with a capsule strain in his right elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery that June. Burr spent 2020 at the team’s alternative training site in Schaumburg.

Fry has been on the injured list since April 1 (retroactive to March 29) to recover from an offseason microdiscectomy. He went 0-1 with a 3.66 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 18 relief appearances in 2020.

Robert has been on the injured list since May 4 with a Grade 3 strain of his right hip flexor suffered while running to first base in the first inning May 2 against the Cleveland Indians.