White Sox: The good, bad, and ugly of Carlos Rodon’s career
The Chicago White Sox have non-tendered Carlos Rodon, ending his time on the southside.
Before pitchers like Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, and Dylan Cease were thought of as future and present-day stars. The White Sox had Carlos Rodon pegged as the future ace of this team before the rebuild was even a thought.
Carlos Rodon spent 6 seasons with the Chicago White Sox after being drafted by the team third overall in 2014. He spent one season in the minors before making his big-league debut in 2015. When you draft someone with the third overall pick, you have expectations for that player to be with your team for a long time.
Unfortunately, Rodon never reached his ceiling in Chicago. After a somewhat promising rookie season, injuries and inconsistencies ended up being his downfall. Other than his rookie season, Rodon never finished with an ERA below four.
What really stings about the Rodon failure is that not only was Rodon a major miss but so was Carson Fulmer, who was drafted the very next year. The Sox quickly gave up on Fulmer but they decided to keep giving Carlos chances. They even brought him on in a relief appearance this past postseason against the Oakland A’s in the playoffs. That very move was criticized heavily by fans and people who cover the team. It can also be another reason to push for the inevitable firing of Rick Renteria.
With the Sox entering a whole new era while shedding one of the final pieces of the pre-rebuild era, let’s look at the good, bad, and ugly of Carlos Rodon’s White Sox career:
The potential was what kept the White Sox interested for so long.
No team in any sport gives up on a prized investment very early on in that player’s career. However, things work differently in baseball due to the farm system. Some players never make it out of the minors and never get a chance to showcase their talent at the big league level.
This wasn’t the case for Rodon, who was actually more the exact opposite. Rodon came through the minors very quickly, only appearing in nine games in the 2014 season. He was clearly seen as a close to MLB ready-prospect by the White Sox. He made his White Sox debut in late April of 2015 and his first season was met with optimism.
He finished his rookie season with a 9-6 record over 23 starts. He had a very solid ERA of 3.75 which was the only time he finished with an ERA below four. He had 139 strikeouts and a K/9 of nine. Rodon never really topped his rookie year after that.
Year after year, Sox fans were left clinging to the hope of Rodon working out with the team. No one ever wants to see a high draft pick for your favorite team fail but it will always be a possibility. When the Sox entered a full-blown rebuild after the 2016 season, it started becoming clear that the timelines of Rodon and where the Sox were going was never going to match up unless he put it all together.
Inconsistencies plagued Rodon’s promising White Sox career.
After the success of his 2015 season, Rodon was getting a little bit more inconsistent each year. He had a healthy 2016 where he appeared in 28 games, five more than in his rookie campaign. He had a season that was comparable to his 2015 season but was a little worse in certain categories.
His ERA jumped almost 30 points to get above four, where it would remain the rest of his career. Of course, you can argue that his numbers were going to be inflated due to more games that were pitched, but the ERA was concerning.
Rodon had a decent 2016 season but going forward his number would slowly get worse. 2018 would be his next “healthy” season, where his struggles seemed to be worse. His FIP jumped up almost a full point to 4.95, and his K/9 dropped to 6.7. Rodon had never been below 9 before that time.
Rodon’s shortcomings can’t be separated from his injury history, which is quite long in itself. After 2016, the decline of his play was noticeable as well as injuries began piling up for the once highly-touted prospect. That leads us to the part of Carlos Rodon’s career that leaves us calling it the ugly.
Injuries ruined what could have been a great career for the White Sox.
Carlos Rodon’s rookie season was a pretty healthy one but the injuries quickly started to pile up for the young pitcher. In 2016 he didn’t miss any significant time but he did suffer a sprained wrist. This injury didn’t seem to do too much damage because he still had a relatively solid season.
2017 and 2018 was a rough time for Rodon. He suffered a bicep injury which kept him out until June. He was also suffering from shoulder inflammation that was bothering him the following season a well. As talked about in the last slide, Rodon wasn’t necessarily healthy in 2018 but he did at least start 20 games.
Those previously mentioned two years gave way to what was to come. After just seven games in 2019, Rodon was shut down for Tommy John surgery. He has talked in the past about his rough road to recovery. Some pitchers can get the surgery and be fine, others aren’t so lucky.
The Tommy John surgery used to completely ruin a player’s career but with modern-day training, many pitchers have had successful comebacks from it. In Rodon’s case, he was never the same, although you can argue he was never the same after his rookie season as well.
Rodon’s 2020 was a low-point for his Sox career. He only started two games and got completely rocked in both. He was quickly shut down once again and didn’t come back until late September as a reliever.
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The Carlos Rodon draft pick was a miss by the White Sox from a time where they were playing for mediocrity. After making the playoffs for the first time in 12 years the Sox have moved on to a new era and parting ways with Carlos seemed to be something that needed to happen.