Carlos Rodon returns to White Sox on one-year deal

Carlos Rodon

Carlos Rodon had a disastrous relief outing in Game 3 of the playoffs against the Oakland Athletics. The White Sox non-tendered him when the season was over, and at the time, it was reasonable to believe that Rodon had thrown his last pitch for the Sox.

Wrong. On Saturday, the Sox brought him back on a one-year, $3 million contract. 

I'm not sure what the purpose of this move is, but the Sox will probably tell us it is to bolster the depth of the starting rotation. And it's not wrong that the Sox could use more depth in that area.

You can feel pretty confident in the top three pitchers in the rotation: Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn. But then you've got the inconsistent and unproven Dylan Cease, the enigmatic Reynaldo Lopez (who was injured in 2020) and Michael Kopech -- who hasn't thrown a competitive pitch since 2018 -- competing for the other two spots.

So, yeah, it makes perfect sense to bolster the depth. But why would any person have confidence that Rodon is the answer? Here are the innings pitched totals for the oft-injured left-hander over the course of his career:

• 2015: 139.1
• 2016: 165.0
• 2017: 69.1
• 2018: 120.2
• 2019: 34.2
• 2020: 7.2

And here are Rodon's ERAs over that same period:

• 2015: 3.75
• 2016: 4.04
• 2017: 4.15
• 2018: 4.18
• 2019: 5.19
• 2020: 8.22

Rodon is getting worse and less reliable all the time. He's had surgeries on both his shoulder and his elbow during his time with the Sox, and while the quick ramp-up during the pandemic-riddled 2020 season certainly did him no favors, it's hard to give Rodon the benefit of the doubt when he's gotten injured every other year, too.

Some people have noted that Rodon's velocity returned in 2020, and that could be a reason for optimism going forward. It's not wrong to say that Rodon was consistently hitting 96 mph with his fastball the last time that we saw him. However, in his last three outings -- a meltdown against Cleveland, a game against the Cubs the last weekend of the regular season, and the aforementioned crapfest in Oakland -- Rodon threw 60 pitches and only got two swings-and-misses.

The velocity is there, but is the stuff? 

And you know, the Sox had other options for rotation depth. If they wanted to stick with somebody they know, Jose Quintana was a free agent this offseason. Sure, Quintana had injures in 2020, as well, but as recently as 2019, he made 31 starts and threw 171 innings -- two benchmarks that Rodon has never reached in his career. 

Alas, Quintana signed a one-year deal worth $8 million with the Los Angeles Angels. 

Left-hander James Paxton remains a free agent and could have been an option for the Sox. Paxton also had injury problems in 2020 that limited him to five starts. But, again, as recently as 2019, Paxton made 29 starts, won 15 games and posted a 3.82 ERA. Rodon has never made 29 starts or won 15 games in a season, and he hasn't had an ERA below 4.00 since 2015. Just sayin'.

Lastly, I don't know why the Sox didn't consider right-hander Garrett Richards, who was hurt for most of 2019, but made 10 credible starts for the San Diego Padres in 2020 -- he went 2-2 with a 4.03 ERA in 51.1 innings.

Richards signed a one-year deal worth $10 million with the Boston Red Sox.

Granted, these pitchers all cost more than the $3 million that Rodon is going to make in 2021, but the Sox tend to get what they pay for when they make these sorts of moves.

If Rodon posts 10 reasonably good starts sometime in 2021, I'd take that right now. I'll be pleasantly surprised if he does. Nothing against the guy -- I think he truly wants to get healthy and turn around the negative narrative of his career -- but in a win-now 2021 season, I can't trust him in any role with the Sox.

Clayton Kershaw vs Chris Sale: The folly of All-Star Game selections

Today, we compare stat lines from two of the game's elite pitchers:

Player A: 13 starts, 10-2, 1.85 ERA, 87.1 IP, 115 Ks, 12 BBs, 0.87 WHIP, .199 BAA
Player B: 13 starts, 8-1, 2.16 ERA, 87.1 IP, 96 Ks, 16 BBs, 0.87 WHIP, .194 BAA

Player A is Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who is quite rightfully recognized as the best pitcher in the game.

Player B is Chris Sale of the White Sox, who doesn't get much publicity because, well, he plays for the "second team in the Second City."

The two pitchers have made the same number of starts and thrown the same number of innings this season. Kershaw has a slightly better ERA and a few more strikeouts, which you would expect for a National League pitcher who gets to strike out the opposing team's pitcher on a regular basis. However, the WHIPs of the two pitchers are identical, and Sale has a slight edge in opponents' batting average.

You would think both of these pitchers would be no-brainer selections to the All-Star Game. Kershaw was rightfully chosen and is a candidate to start the game for the National League. Sale, meanwhile, is relegated to the fan vote, where he will compete with Dallas Keuchel, Rick Porcello, Garrett Richards and Corey Kluber for the final roster spot.

No offense to any of those other four men, who are all having good seasons, but Sale is better than all of them and should have been selected to the team without having to go through this vote. The White Sox are not contending in the American League this year, but if you're a fan of an AL contender, and you want homefield advantage in the World Series, you want Sale on that AL roster. He's the best left-handed pitcher in the league by any measure.

I know some people say Sale missed time with an injury early in the season. They might say he doesn't merit selection because of that. To that, I say nonsense. Kershaw also missed time due to injury early this season. That doesn't change the fact that he belongs in the All-Star Game.

Again, Kershaw and Sale have made the same number of starts this season. In my world, they should both be candidates to start the All-Star Game, early-season injuries be damned.

To be honest, I can't devise a system that would result in complete fairness in terms of All-Star Game selections. No matter who votes -- fans, media, players, managers -- they all bring their biases with them. There always have been snubs, and there always will be snubs.

I just happen to think Sale is the biggest snub this year, and I hope he gets the last spot with the fan vote. Since the All-Star Game "counts" these days, you want the best players representing your league. Sale is clearly in that category.

Doubleheader loss highlights White Sox' pitching holes, questionable management

From 2009 to 2012, there were many times I heard White Sox fans wish for the front office to "blow up" the team's veteran core and start a rebuilding process. My response to those comments was often along the lines of "Be careful what you wish for."

Rebuilding is a hard and oftentimes frustrating process, and Sox fans are learning that this season. It's difficult, because even in a year where you know your team is not going to make the playoffs, you'd like to at least have hope that your team can win the next game on its schedule. But during a rebuilding year, that hope is not always present. There are certain days where you just know your team has little or no chance at victory.

For me, Tuesday was one of those days. The White Sox were scheduled to take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a doubleheader at U.S. Cellular Field. Normally, a fan gets excited about 18 innings of baseball in a day, but one look at the pitching matchups for this twinbill was enough to make a Sox fan hold his head in despair.

The Angels, who currently lead the wild card standings in the American League, were throwing their top two pitchers -- Garrett Richards and Jered Weaver. The Sox were countering with their No. 4 and No. 5 starters, two guys who are lucky to be in the big leagues in Hector Noesi and Scott Carroll.

It was impossible to escape the nagging feeling that the Sox were destined to absorb a pounding in this doubleheader. And, indeed, both Noesi and Carroll pitched poorly. The Angels swept the twinbill by 8-4 and 7-5 scores.

Noesi was handed a 3-0 lead in the first inning after Jose Abreu connected for his 26th home run of the season, but he couldn't hold it. In fact, Noesi embarrassed himself and the team by walking seven men in 5-plus innings. He allowed five earned runs. Meanwhile, Richards settled in and gave his team eight quality innings, and the Sox never had much of a prayer -- despite the promising start.

The good news for the Sox was they only had to use two relief pitchers -- Ronald Belisario and Daniel Webb -- to eat up the last four innings of the game. Given the circumstances, it could have been worse, and the Sox' bullpen was still in relatively good shape going into the nightcap.

As expected, Carroll struggled in Game 2. He gave up three runs in the second inning to put the Sox in an early hole, and by the sixth inning, the Angels were out to a seemingly comfortable 6-2 lead. However, the Sox fought back with three runs in the bottom half of that inning. Dayan Viciedo's two-run homer cut the deficit to 6-5. The Sox had the potential tying run on third base and the potential go-ahead run on first before the Angels escaped the inning.

Weaver had entered Tuesday's contest with an 8-2 record and a lifetime 1.70 ERA against Chicago. On this day, the Sox touched him up for five runs over 5.2 innings. That's good offensive production against a quality, top-of-the-rotation pitcher.

Going into the seventh inning, the Sox trailed by just one run, and I figured they would take Carroll out of the game. None of their three best relievers -- Jake Petricka, Javy Guerra or Zach Putnam -- had pitched in Game 1. All were rested and ready.

Alas, Carroll was inexplicably allowed to start the seventh inning. No, his pitch count wasn't high. He hadn't reached 80 pitches yet. But, he hadn't been effective, and the top of the Los Angeles batting order was due up.

Naturally, Carroll walked Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout back-to-back to start the inning. Finally, Petricka was summoned from the bullpen. He allowed one inherited runner to score before extricating the Sox from a bases-loaded mess, and the damage was done. The Angels had scored an insurance run, and the good vibes from the three-run rally the Sox had the previous inning were snuffed. Los Angeles had little difficulty closing out the win from there.

You see, it's hard enough to win when you only have three legitimate major league starting pitchers on your roster. The Sox came into Tuesday on a three-game winning streak, because Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and John Danks had all won their most recent starts against the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend.

But when Noesi, or Carroll, or Andre Rienzo take the mound, this team is asking way too much of its offense. You can't expect to be consistently competitive when you send bums like these to the mound.

The problem is made even worse when the manager and the pitching coach continually push their luck, trying to coax one more inning out of a struggling starting pitcher who hasn't earned the right to be out there. Would the Sox have won Game 2 had Carroll been pulled after six innings? Probably not, but it doesn't take a genius to see they would have had a better chance had Petricka been allowed to start his own inning in the seventh.

That's what being a manager is all about -- giving your team the best chance to win. Robin Ventura and Don Cooper should have been happy Carroll got through six innings, given the subpar stuff he was featuring. Instead, they got greedy and asked him to try to get through seven. It wasn't happening, and as a fan, bad management only adds to the frustration of having to watch a pitching staff full of gaping holes.