Having incredible breakout after losing sight, Dodgers prospect starts today's Prospect Showcase
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All professional athletes face some measure of adversity, whether it's due to a stretch of tough play or an injury. Few players have had to deal with anything as harrowing as what Patrick Copen has returned from.
Last August, in the midst of his first full professional season, the Dodgers pitching prospect was hit in the face by a line drive in a High-A game that permanently cost him the vision in his right eye.
But Copen has been undeterred. The 2023 seventh-round pick used his time away from the field to sharpen his game and was able to return to the mound for Spring Training. Pitching better than ever this season, Copen earned a promotion from High-A Great Lakes to Double-A Tulsa two months into the season.
Now the Dodgers' No. 29 prospect -- who is likely to significantly rise up the rankings in August's rerank -- will play on his biggest stage yet when his Drillers face the Frisco RoughRiders in the MLB Pipeline Prospect Showcase at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, live on MLB Network and streamed on MLB.TV, MiLB.TV, MLB.com and the MLB and MiLB apps.
Armed with a 70-grade fastball up to 99 mph and a slider and cutter that both flash plus, Copen was effective in his first full pro season with a 3.59 ERA and 98 strikeouts to 54 walks in 92 2/3 innings. In 2025, he's harnessed his stuff for even better results against stiffer competition. The 6-foot-6 righty has nearly matched his strikeout total (97) in just 63 1/3 innings and sports a 2.42 ERA, although his control has wavered (6.25 BB/9).
The Marshall product credits the Dodgers for supporting him in the immediate aftermath of the injury. Team staff told him he would continue to pitch for the team, which enabled him to focus more on how and when, rather than if, he could return to the field.
"Throughout the 2024 season, I spent the beginning of that dialing in my mechanics to get a good feel for when my mechanics went right and when my mechanics were going wrong, to feel better command and pitch movement and all that stuff," Copen said on MLB Network's MLB Central. "Obviously, working through all of that in the season is a little bit difficult because you're also trying to develop as well as perform every day. So when I was not able to play, I watched video of myself from a whole bunch of different angles and had conversations with coaches to see where can I go, where can I take my delivery to where it's the most efficient and the most effective, and I can be able to most effectively get hitters out."
Copen's lack of vision in his right eye takes away his depth perception, but he's found ways to stay effective. His left eye is more important for seeing home plate, and he only loses site of his target at the end of his follow-through. But he's always quickly looked up after he releases, so that long-standing facet to his delivery is quickly paying off. More challenging is holding runners on second, since he can't use the peripheral vision on his right side and has to fully look at runners.
Copen is eager to show off his new self on a bigger stage -- and prove that no obstacle is too big to overcome.
"If there's something that you want to do and you truly, in your heart, think that you can do it, then there's nothing stopping you. All it needs is some hard work," he said. "But it's not really hard work when that's the one thing that you dream of doing -- then you're not really doing any work at all."