After Carlos Rodón opened his second half with one gem and two slogs, the White Sox rearranged their rotation to give him eight days of rest. The results suggested it worked. He struck out 11 Cubs over five shutout innings, and his good velocity was available immediately, after two outings where his lesser fastballs were pounced upon out of the gate.
Alas, it didn’t seem to fix everything. A day before he was set to start the Field of Dreams Game against the Yankees, the White Sox placed him on the 10-day injured list with left shoulder fatigue. The Sox recalled Matt Foster to take his place.
Major League Baseball won’t be shorted a name-brand starter for a marquee event. Lance Lynn was supposed to start this afternoon’s game against Minnesota, but he’s instead bumped back for Thursday, with Reynaldo López leading a bullpen effort today.
The hope is that Rodón’s shoulder is more about maintenance and workload management, but the signals are unclear:
There’s this:
And then there’s this:
Perhaps the White Sox are seeing how much time López can buy. He’s been outstanding in his hodgepodge of appearances since returning to the White Sox, with 18 strikeouts to 12 baserunners (nine hits, three walks) over 17 innings. The 3.88 FIP and three homers allowed suggests his 1.59 ERA is lucky, but that’s kind of López’s game. His ability to succeed rests on his ability to bully hitters with his fastball, and his best velocity his back. He’s also more confident in his slider. It still doesn’t look like an amazing pitch. but “fake it ’til you make it” can be a viable strategy, especially for somebody who has talked about shortcomings with his on-mound mentality.
Rodón was on pace for 155 regular-season innings, which would be the second-highest total of his career, 10 shy of his personal best set in 2016. Given his general fragility, it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if the White Sox wanted to be proactive about getting his best form in October. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if Rodón shoulder was legitimately bothering him, as he’s already had surgery on it in 2017, and soreness in 2020. I suppose we’ll find out which situation they’re looking at by the weekend.
In other personnel news:
*Tony La Russa will miss the Field of Dreams Game for the funeral of his sister’s husband in Florida.
*Yasmani Grandal will begin his rehab stint in Birmingham tonight.
*If you have better ideas about keeping White Sox players healthy, apply here.
(Photo by Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports)
Boras isn’t in good spirits today. The price for Rodon’s services this offseason just took a hit.
I had wondered if teams would ignore his long and persistent injury history and pony up a big package for him. You can only hope it isn’t serious, and that he can still showcase himself in a big way in October.
Unfortunate for Rodon. His future earnings took a big hit with this news. Hopefully he’s able to get another few starts in before October.
Very unfortunate. Just as they get all their guys back aside from Grandal, they lose their 2nd best pitcher.
A DL stint is not a big deal, but with his history you have to wonder what it means. I hope they give him at least 2-3 weeks off, his health for the postseason is all that matters with him. Sucks to hear this, hope he is ok.
From the ESPN article, it sounds like the team is just being cautious at this point. There’s no need to take any risks on his shoulder with a 10 1/2 game lead in mid-August. He has been phenomenal and is a big reason the Sox — I always want to say “we” but I don’t have a lot to do with it, in reality — have that big lead. I would love to take on the Sox biomechanics position, but I made the mistake of majoring in English. They told us English majors could do anything. That wasn’t true.
Some are speculating that he is not hurt at all, and this just allows them to rest him while calling another pitcher up. I hope that is the case, not sure if there are any requirements where a guy has to actually have an issue to be put on the DL.
He sure looked good last time out. Hopefully there is no fatigue or inflammation at all.
I would love to apply for that position. I have a background in optical engineering and am somewhat familiar with the technology and the physics and have done some related software development… what’s the worst that could happen? I don’t really want to live in Glendale though, I love Colorado a lot.