With diabetes under control, pitcher Dylan Covey tries to stick with White Sox – Chicago Tribune

White Sox pitching prospect Dylan Covey is among the many players in spring training who have no idea where they will head when the teams pack up for the regular season.

A Rule 5 draft pick in December, Covey would have to make the big-league roster out of spring training or be put on waivers and offered back to the Athletics, per major-league rules.

But at 25, Covey already is a pro at dealing with the unpredictable.

His biggest life-altering twist came in 2010 after the Brewers drafted the right-hander 14th overall one spot behind Chris Sale out of his California high school. Covey was nearing the signing deadline when a blood test from a team physical revealed he had Type 1 diabetes.

That gave him just days to figure out how to proceed.

Covey said the Brewers offered him the slot value of $1.7 million, less than what he asked for before the diagnosis, but he and his family decided to turn it down. He instead attended the University of San Diego, closer to home and his physician, while he learned to manage his disease.

"Maybe not financially speaking, but as far as my health, which is obviously more important, I think it was the right decision," Covey said. "I had all of the resources there. I'm sure the Brewers would have been great with it too, but just being so unfamiliar with it all, it was really a comfort thing. I didn't know what to expect."

When the Sox asked about Covey this offseason, he told them the diabetes "is not even an issue anymore." He knows how to eat and has an insulin pump to manage it, and he said his body is "like a normal person's now."

It took a while to get there.

The first year and a half after his diagnosis were "really tough," he said. Covey learned about counting carbohydrates and taking insulin. He lost weight before the diagnosis, and after putting it back on, he worked to turn it into muscle.

Meanwhile, he pitched 34 1/3 innings as a freshman at San Diego, though in retrospect he said he should have redshirted.

"Learning to do that at first is tough because you don't really think about how many carbohydrates you're eating every time you take a bite of food," said Covey, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 195 pounds. "It was definitely an adjustment period I had to go through."

After three seasons at San Diego, the A's drafted Covey in the fourth round in 2013, and he signed for $370,000. He worked his way to Double A in 2016 and had a 1.84 ERA in six starts before an oblique injury. He returned to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, going 4-0 with a 4.74 ERA, before the Sox picked him up at the winter meetings in December.

It has been a more difficult journey than Covey could have imagined as a teenager.

"Who knows what would have happened if I had signed in 2010," Covey said. "It has been a little bit longer of a path, but I'm happy for the situation I am in right now with the White Sox."

The Sox are giving Covey a shot to show what he can do this spring.

He gave up two earned runs on three hits in his first one-inning appearance against the Rockies last month, an outing pitching coach Don Cooper chalked up to "anxiousness."

But he pitched two scoreless innings on 16 pitches in his start against the Padres on Friday, and he's scheduled to start again Saturday.

"He had a nice outing the other night, got nothing but ground balls," Cooper said. "He's a two-seam guy, so he's real strong with his sinker, arm-side, down and in to righties, down and away to lefties. ... I told him, now we're on the move, and now we've got to see if he can carry it into the next one."

The Sox rotation is full, barring a trade, but the club could keep Covey as a long reliever or spot starter. They also could try to strike a trade with the A's if they like what they see this spring.

Covey said he is staying focused amid the "little bit of pressure."

"If I don't make the team, I go back to the situation I was in before," Covey said. "I've just got to go out and do my best every time, and hopefully my actions prove to them that I'm worth the pick they used to get me."

Intention to start: Pitching prospect Reynaldo Lopez has made it known he hopes to remain a starter when he reaches the majors, and manager Rick Renteria reiterated Monday the Sox are sticking with that plan for now.

Renteria said he was happy with how Lopez located in his second start Sunday, when he allowed one earned run on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts in three innings.

"First inning was a little rough, but obviously he settled down and did a nice job," Renteria said. "He was commanding all of his pitches and looked very good."

WBC update: Sox minor-leaguer Alex Katz pitched a scoreless inning in Team Israel's 2-1, 10-inning victory over South Korea to open the World Baseball Classic. Katz hit one batter and had one strikeout in the seventh.

ckane@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribKane

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With diabetes under control, pitcher Dylan Covey tries to stick with White Sox - Chicago Tribune