White Sox rookie Kopech deleted offensive tweets: 'It's not who I am now'

Chicago White Sox rookie right-hander Michael Kopech is the latest major-league baseball player to have offensive tweets surface.

Kopech, who made his MLB debut against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, acknowledged he sent racist and homophobic tweets in 2013. One of the since-deleted tweets contained the N-word, according to Madeline Kenney of the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Yeah, I had to delete some stuff," Kopech said. "Things I said that were immature and inappropriate. I used some poor language in there. Obviously, I'm trying to be looked at as a role model and the last thing I want to do is have some kid look at what I'm saying and take it the wrong way.

"It's unfortunate that I was ever at that point mentally but it's not who I am now. Yeah, I cleaned some tweets up and tried to get rid of them. But, obviously, people saw them. It's not who I am now and it's not who I want to be. It was something I did in high school, and with everything I've gone through in pro ball the last five seasons I feel like a big part of my career was maturing. Hate to see it but it's not who I am anymore."

While the tweets in question have been deleted, they have been preserved in a series of screencaps.

The 22-year-old is the fourth young player to have old, offensive tweets surface this season after Josh Hader, Trea Turner, and Sean Newcomb were exposed for using offensive language in their Twitter feeds.