The White Sox should do everything they can to keep Carlos Rodon

Baseball is in a bad way right now. There is none because of greedy owners and a bad commissioner. Unfortunately, that leaves outstanding teams like the Chicago White Sox waiting for a return. We can only hope that it happens sooner rather than later.

While we wait, there are clear holes that the White Sox needs to address. One of the least talked about holes on the team is the pitching and that is because all 30 teams could use more of it. The White Sox aren’t behind the 8 ball on it but more would certainly help.

Carlos Rodon is currently sitting there as an unrestricted free agent. He will be free to sign with any team in the league the second the lockout is lifted. You better believe that teams will be lining up for his services after the way he pitched for the White Sox in 2021.

He wasn’t even supposed to be on the 2021 White Sox but they brought him in later in the offseason to compete for the job as the fifth starter. There were a lot of ups and downs but mostly downs going into that so what he did was phenomenal.

Rodon won the job as the fifth starter over Reynaldo Lopez and then was probably the best starting pitcher they had all year long. He made it to his first All-Star Game and came in 5th place for the American League Cy Young Award because he was so good.

Carlos Rodon is well-deserving of a contract from the Chicago White Sox.

In 2021, Rodon went 13-5 with an ERA of 2.37 and a WHIP of 0.957. He had 185 strikeouts over 132.2 innings pitched. All of this accumulated him a 5.0 WAR which was one of the best in all of baseball for pitchers. He should be very proud of the numbers that he managed to put up.

Rodon did deal with some arm soreness late in the year which is why he only made 24 of his 32 starts. There is certainly a risk when you think about adding him back to the rotation once the lockout ends but it is worth taking a chance.

If he managed to be healthy for the year, he should be able to have a similar performance because his stuff is so good. It is all about making sure that his arm feels good enough to go out there and compete at a high level.

All of that would be worth the risk for the team that drafted him third overall. He was outstanding in 2022 and deserves a nice contract. They are also probably going to play in less than 162 games this season which should help his freshness anyway. Bringing Rodon back would be a big brain move for Rick Hahn.