Kevin Kopps' gains push him from Double-A San Antonio bullpen to El Paso; Jackson Merrill could be a September call-up for Padres and Graham Pauley hits 19th homer
won 12 games in 2021 at Arkansas, saved 11 games that year and struck out 131 batters while leading the country with an 0.90 ERA. Because he was a sixth-year senior who was already 24 years old, his draft stock didn’t come close to matching the high-profile arms he beat out for the Golden Spikes Award — Vanderbilt’s— but the Padres viewed Kopps as a fast-track bullpen prospect as their third-round pick that summer.
The speed-bump in that plan: Double-A hitters were spitting on the gyro-like slider/cutter that college hitters endless flailed at. Kopps has attacked that trend head on this year, shaving his ERA from 4.14 in 54 1/3 innings last year in Double-A San Antonio’s bullpen to 2.63 in 54 2/3 innings to prompt this week’s promotion to Triple-A El Paso.Especially encouraging, Kopps shaved nearly 5 percent off his walk rate, pushed his strikeout rate from 24.9 percent to 27.1 and transformed his breaking ball back into a chase pitch.
It doesn’t hurt that Kopps has pushed his max velocity from 94 mph last year to 96.4 and is averaging 93 mph when he sat 91 last year. He’s also pushed his average slider velocity from 85 mph to 88 and the max as high as 91. Kopps’ makeup and drive were plus checkmarks as he joined the system, although the want-to may have been a detriment at times last year as his failures ate at him.“The first thing is Kevin’s a really, really hard worker and that goes a long way,” Padres assistant farm directorsaid. “He’s been good in the gym in adding strength and he’s upped his intent to throw harder. That’s something we challenged him to do, and he’s bought into that.
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