White Sox: Don Cooper Not Expecting Carlos Rodon to Start Season

White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper isn’t expecting Carlos Rodon to be ready for the 2018 season.

Count Chicago White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper as someone who doesn’t feel Carlos Rodon will be ready to start the season. The left-hander continues to recover from arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder. The surgery has a recovery time of six to eight months. Rodon had surgery in September so eight months would be May.

"“I’m not counting on and I don’t think anybody is counting on him being ready to start the season,” Cooper said. “Obviously, we will learn more at SoxFest [Jan. 26-28] and we’ll learn some when Spring Training opens up.”Don Cooper, White Sox Pitching Coach"

Right now the important thing is the White Sox give their young pitcher plenty of time to rest and recover. I personally felt they shouldn’t have let him pitch last season. Especially knowing they would struggle. They opted to bring him back and may have brought him back prematurely. If this team is going to contend for titles, they can’t afford to have these types of injuries to their young players. Especially someone who was thought to be the ace of their starting rotation.

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Rodon remains the biggest question mark on the roster. There’s no telling how he’ll perform coming off surgery. He had a ton of potential and that potential should still be there. In today’s MLB, shoulder and elbow surgery for pitchers is becoming quite common. That should give fans some hope that Rodon could be effective.

The 25-year-old has been a mixed bag in limited action. For his career, he is 20-21 with a 3.95 ERA. That’s pretty modest but not exactly what the team had in mind. Still, if he recovers 100 percent from shoulder surgery, he should be able to have a solid career.

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Fans haven’t entirely given up hope but he seems to be an afterthought right now due to the talent in the minors. That should allow Rodon to take his time in recovery and not come back until he is good and ready.