Four years into his professional career, though, it might be fair to now revise that down to “Will he ever break out?”

For the last two years, it has seemed like the only thing holding Rodon back has been his health. A myriad of ailments have limited him to fewer than 200 innings the last two seasons combined, and in the 69 1/3 innings he threw in 2017, we got enough of a glimpse of good Rodon to remain optimistic he would develop into the top end starting pitcher the White Sox always hoped he’d become.

He was shut down late, of course, and wound up having arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder that kept him sidelined until June of this season. The good news for Rodon is that once he returned, he showed no signs of that injury or any other. The bad news was, well … the results. The walk rate jumped back up to more than 4 per nine innings pitched, and the strikeout rate which was always acceptably around 9 K/9, dropped considerably, and the swinging strike rate expectedly jumped along with it.

There was really no way to easily explain the struggles, which is honestly kind of a good thing. Where a dip in velocity or out-of-whack mechanics would be easy to identify, they would also be a bigger reason for concern that his shoulder surgery was proving a hindrance. That wasn’t the case at all, and the month and a half where Rodon produced good results — from July 5 through August 27 he had a 1.84 ERA in 63 2/3 innings despite just 49 strikeouts against 27 walks — showed that he can at times get by without his best stuff.

It’s that success that makes the vulnerability he’s shown that much more frustrating. We’ve seen Rodon at his best, such as the 11 strikeout, 0 walk performance against Boston last August, and although he wasn’t missing bats at a sustainable rate this season, he still showed the ability to blow mid-to-high 90s heat and his nasty, wipeout slider past hitters at times. But between those blips of success were command issues where he couldn’t find the strike zone and got pounded when he did.

For what it’s worth, both Rodon and the White Sox believe a full and healthy offseason will be part of the cure to those woes. And maybe they’re right. As of this writing, it’s expected that Rodon will enter camp next spring at 100 percent, which is something we haven’t seen in a few years. And that plus being another year removed from surgery may be exactly what helps elevate him to the level both he and the team know he can reach.

Rodon becoming a top-of-the-rotation starter is a bit factor in the White Sox rebuild living up to expectations. He still has a chance to do that, but until he puts it all together — both from a health and results standpoint —the skepticism will remain.

Lead Photo Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

All that said, I’d be remiss to not give a nod, on the rare occasion that it’s warranted, to the major league team when things go right. Sunday’s 8-7 win over the Rays gave the White Sox their first four-game winning streak of the season and first road series sweep since early 2016 in Toronto. The four wins coming against the Royals and Rays isn’t exactly the stiffest of competition to be beating one’s chest over, but positive production for any period of time more than a day or two is noteworthy during a time when that hasn’t happened all that often.

1. In his first start since I wondered allowed if he had “figured it out,” Carlos Rodon lowered his ERA to 2.94 with six shutout innings in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Tampa. He also walked six. Rodon admitted after the game that he didn’t have as good of a feel for his fastball as he would have liked, but was able to wiggle his way out of trouble enough to stay in the game thanks to sharp secondaries. That he allowed just three hits and induced 16 swinging strikes is a testament to how well his stuff can play even when he’s not fully on, but against a better hitting team he may not have been so lucky, and the start just further illustrates how integral fastball command is for Rodon.

2. For players with the age and skill set Jose Abreu possesses, any prolonged slump brings with it worries that the end of his time as a productive player is near. Abreu entered the All-Star break in the midst of the worst slump of his otherwise remarkably consistent career, but has since looked once again like the Abreu of old. Prior to Sunday’s game, Abreu was hitting .357/.438/.768 in 15 post-break games and went 2-for-4 in Sunday’s 8-7 win. He’s raised his OPS by 69 points during that span.

3. OK, so I lied. We’re still going to talk about prospects quite a bit. Kopech rattled off another impressive start Sunday, striking out nine and walking zero in seven innings of work. In the link at the top, of this post, James Fegan goes into detail about both the mechanical and mental adjustments he has made to break out of a midseason slump, and the results have shown in the form of 41 strikeouts against just 4 walks in 31 IP across his last five starts.

4. While the clamoring for a Kopech promotion will only grow louder as he continues to dominate, Dylan Cease has not ceased to impress even after his late-June promotion to Double-A. After Saturday’s 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB,  9 K performance, he’s now tossed 40 2/3 innings since his promotion with a 1.99 ERA, 58 strikeouts and only 13 walks. The buzz around Kopech and Jimenez is real and warranted, but Cease has been the most pleasant surprise of the White Sox minor league season. Jumping levels is one thing, but he’s also already soared past his career-high in innings pitched at 112 and counting.

5. Speaking of Jimenez, there was a bit of buzz on White Sox Twitter Sunday evening when he was scratched from the lineup in Charlotte right around the same time the White Sox announced that Leury Garcia left Sunday’s game with left hamstring soreness. It turned out to be a false alarm, as Jimenez was reportedly kept out because of flu-like symptoms. The hand-wringing continues.

Lead Photo Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Rodon was still a junior at NC State, but with the White Sox holding the third pick in the 2014 draft, there was a chance — although it was slim at the time — that the White Sox would have a chance to draft him. The collegiate season had just begun and he seemed like a pretty good bet to go No. 1 overall, but as the internet filled up with gifs and scouting reports from those who saw the young phenom, it was hard not to dream of a world where the Astros and Marlins both passed him up and he landed in Chicago. That, of course, is exactly what happened.

Fast-forward to present day and while Rodon’s ascent from top draft prospect to ace hasn’t exactly been linear, we may finally be seeing him turn into the pitcher it was easy to dream on four-plus years ago.

On Sunday against the Blue Jays, Rodon threw 116 pitches (his most of the season and tied for third highest pitch total of his career) and generated 13 whiffs, including seven on his 27 sliders. His performance gives him a three-start streak where he’s thrown 22 2/3 innings, allowed four earned runs, walked six, and struck out 21. In nine starts since his return from injury in early June, he’s allowed more than two earned runs just twice and walked more than two just three times.

It’s arguably been the strongest stretch of success of his career, even if the peripherals don’t necessarily back it up. Prior to Sunday’s start, his strikeout rate and swinging strike rate were the lowest of his career, and regardless of which predictive tool you prefer — cFIP, DRA, ERA-, etc. — none like his performance to date all that much.

It’s tough to not look at Rodon’s streak of strong play and not see at least a little bit of luck, but there’s still plenty there to get excited about. When I spoke to Don Cooper about Rodon’s development two years ago, the White Sox pitching coach simplified things, as he’s wont to do.

“We’re looking for him to throw strikes early in the count and get ahead,” Cooper said. “He needs to increase his first-pitch strikes. It’s at 50-52 percent right now. It needs to be higher. 60 percent or above would be ideal.”

 It’s a fairly obvious refrain and not uncommonly heard when scouts or coaches discuss pitchers, but for Rodon it’s always been obvious: If he can throw strikes early in the count, his wipeout slider becomes all the more dangerous. Entering Sunday’s start, Rodon was throwing a first-pitch strike 59.8 percent of the time, three percentage points higher than a year ago and six percentage points higher than his career mark.

So if he’s doing that, what’s with the decrease in strikeouts? It’s hard to figure, but one thing we do know is that while he’s not missing as many bats, opponents aren’t making as much hard contact. His line drive percentage is down is down eight percent from a year ago and the percentage of contact he’s allowed that’s classified as “soft contact” is up four percent, while the “hard contact” percentage is down nearly five percent.

It’s only been nine starts, and it’s not exactly uncommon for pitchers of any skill level to reel off streaks of success similar to what we’re seeing out of Rodon right now, but the tools in his arsenal and potential he’s shown between injuries or bouts of wildness give reason for hope that the peripherals don’t tell the whole story about Rodon’s success. Four years ago we were dreaming of him anchoring a White Sox rotation for years to come. Things haven’t gone exactly as planned, but maybe he’s starting to finally realize that potential.

Lead Photo Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

1. After a rocky June, pitching his first games in the majors since offseason shoulder surgery, Carlos Rodon has rattled off three straight quality starts against the Astros, Cardinals, and Angels, even carrying a no hitter into the sixth inning on Tuesday night.  Over three starts in July, Rodon has thrown 21 innings with an ERA of 1.71.  He’s still walking more batters than you’d like, but opposing batters have an OPS of .481 over that stretch.  Rodon has flashed excellence before, but in a season with a whole lot of ghastly pitching and failures at the major league level, it’s a pleasant reminder that not long ago, this guy was widely regarded as a front line starter of the future.  Even after his surgery, Rodon is averaging about 94 mph on his four seamer and touching 98 when he needs it.  July has also seen him abandon a sinking fastball for a more four-seam/change up pairing, which is worth monitoring moving forward.

2. On the offensive side of the ball, the team is oddly unremarkable statistically.  Of their top ten batters by plate appearance, five of them have an OPS+ between 96 and 103, and nine of them are between 96 and 120.  Adam Engel is the only real dud in the bunch with his .560 OPS.  While it’s good nobody in particular has cratered, per se, fora  team of young players we have seen more incremental improvement than any breakouts yet.  Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada have been uneven, if flashy, league average regulars, Matt Davidson, Yolmer Sanchez, Leury Garcia, and Omar Narvaez all continue to look overqualified as bench players but stretched in every day action.

It’s easy to forget Moncada still only has 657 major league plate appearances in his career, basically one full season’s worth and that’s reaching back to include his random 8 games cup of coffee with Boston in 2016.  There’s time yet for this group, particularly the middle infielders, to put together a strong finish to the season but as it stands it’s been a whole lot of Okay.

3. The trade deadline is coming up in less than a week, although it may be a quiet one for the White Sox.  Avisail Garcia has been good while he’s played, but he’s likely been too injury prone to draw much interest even if the White Sox did want to punt on someone who could contribute to a theoretical 2019 contention push. Jose Abreu looks like he’s coming out of his slump, but as we’ve discussed before, the White Sox would need to be blown away to part with the heart and face of the team and he hasn’t hit well enough to imagine such an offer would be forthcoming.  Still, there’s always a market for arms and James Shields has somehow pitched well enough in this weak market to be potentially worth something.

In fact, I would not be surprised to see the White Sox try to bundle a number of arms (or perhaps even hyper versatile bench pieces like Leury Garcia) to a team in the playoff race to improve their prospect return.  Thanks to some crazy win streaks and surprisingly open divisions, Oakland, Arizona, Washington, Seattle, Atlanta, Milwaukee, the Cubs, and arguably the Yankees could all upgrade their rosters with some combination of Shields, Joakim Soria, Leury Garcia, or even a Jace Fry or Xavier Cedeno.  The Blake Rutherford trade of 2017 is a model of what this might look like, even if Fry may not be as good as Kahnle and Soria is not as valuable as a David Robertson.

4.  It figures Nicky Delmonico and Avisail Garcia would come off the disabled list right about when Eloy Jimenez begins earnestly beating the door down for a major league roster spot.  Obviously, with a player of Jimenez’ caliber, you just make a spot for him and sort the rest out later, but this was the real tragedy of Delmonico’s injury, like Charlie Tilson’s before him, and perhaps Ryan Cordell’s as well–the White Sox had a window where there was a lot of playing time to be had for lesser players to show they are perhaps not lesser players, and that window is closing relatively quickly.

Center field still looks wide open, because Engel is approaching his 27th birthday with another couple hundred plate appearances of batting like the best hitting pitcher of the 21st century, but at Triple-A and above, the logjam is in the corners.

5. In case you missed it, our Collin Whitchurch has been writing regularly over at the mothership on the What You Need To Know team, covering all of the news around the league. He has an article up from Tuesday night to help you catch up on the insanity which has been the A’s, the Pirates, the Brewers and more.

1. An uptick in velocity and command of his breaking pitches were the main fuel behind a month where Dylan Covey seemingly transformed from Rule 5 afterthought to a legitimate candidate for future rotation consideration. A Friday night in Texas where he struggled to command anything and left quite a few changeups high in the zone showed just how small his margin for error is, as Covey was tagged for eight earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings in a start that more resembled his forgettable 2017 than the pitcher we saw for the majority of June.

Covey didn’t show any ill effects of the groin injury that forced him out of his previous start early, but was routinely beat around during a second inning in which he allowed three of the four home runs the Rangers hit off him on the day. The fact that he walked three and struck out zero — he induced just four swinging strikes on the evening — only further illustrated how badly he was locating throughout his 74-pitch outing.

Covey showed enough during his hot stretch to earn more opportunities on a team going nowhere in 2018. But he’s now on a three-start stretch where he’s walked 12 against just three strikeouts, so while optimism regarding the 26-year-old is obviously higher than it was even just a month or so ago, it will be interesting to see how he adjusts and if he’s more like the pitcher we saw for the majority of June or not.

2. Carlos Rodon certainly has more margin for error than Covey in any given start, but the Rangers jumped all over his first sign of command issues and what started out as a dominant start ended earlier than expected. Rodon retired the first seven Rangers he faced, including three strikeouts, but hung a fastball to Joey Gallo in the third inning for a solo home run and lost control in the fourth when a single and a pair of walks came home on a Robinson Chirinos bases-loaded double.

It was the first truly bad start of Rodon’s five since returning from injury on June 9, but what’s prevented him from truly living up to his potential during his three-plus years in the majors has been an inability to consistently command from start to start or, like Saturday, inning to inning. The good news for Rodon is that he seems completely healthy after being plagued by injury for the better part of the last year and a half, but we’re still waiting for Rodon to put together a complete and consistent performance like we know he’s capable of.

3. The White Sox weekend woes were not limited to the poor starts by Covey and Rodon. The bullpen was overburdened and allowed eight earned runs in 8 1/3 innings between Friday and Saturday, although a large chunk of that can be attributed to Bruce Rondon, whose ERA has ballooned up to 8.31 after allowing five earned runs while retiring just one batter on Saturday. Similarly, the White Sox committed a pair of errors in each of their two losses and five for the entire weekend, which is only part of the story of a weekend where a team that already wasn’t exactly known for its smooth fundamentals appeared to lose control of it entirely

Things like this are going to happen when a team rosters a handful of borderline major leaguers or young players still getting their feet wet, but while we’ve somewhat gotten used to the White Sox losing more often than they win, one thing you’d prefer they shore up is on that side of the ball. It’s easy to excuse a rebuilding team playing, say, Adam Engel when his bat isn’t up to snuff,, but when players who are already limited extrapolate things by failing to communicate, missing the cutoff, or some other mental miscue, it becomes much more difficult to excuse. Those are aspects of the game within their control, and while mental errors costing the White Sox wins is hardly detrimental to the immediate future, it’d at the very least make watching the losing more aesthetically appealing, and one would hope they get under control if and when they have eyes on contention.

4. The White Sox did win a game this weekend, as Reynaldo Lopez threw 6 1/3 mostly successful innings in a 10-5 win on Sunday, allowing just two earned runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Most notable in the win, and over the weekend as a whole, was Jose Abreu busting out of his slump and Avisail Garcia putting together a nice post-injury streak. Abreu, who hit was in the midst of a .188/.233/.325 slump from June 5 through 26, is 6-for-20 with a home run, a triple, and three walks since Wednesday, hardly world-mashing numbers, but a vast improvement coming out of one of the worst slumps of his career. Garcia went 4-for-5 on Sunday and is hitting .333 with six extra-base hits in 42 plate appearances since returning from the disabled list on June 22. He’s still hacking away at an absurd rate — zero walks in 118 plate appearances overall this season — but if he can start making solid contact again like he did in 2017, it would be a great sign.

5. A mostly unsuccessful weekend was also felt at the minor league level, where Luis Robert was placed on the seven-day disabled list and Eloy Jimenez left Sunday’s game with an apparent leg injury (the severity is not yet known). The arms fared better, as Michael Kopech tossed six innings on Saturday, giving up just three hits and striking out eight, although he also walked four. Dylan Cease continues to be the biggest bright spot in their stable of prospect arms, rebounding from a rocky debut at Double-A to toss seven innings on Sunday, allowing just one earned run with seven strikeouts and two walks. Alec Hansen has yet to get completely acclimated to the same level since returning from injury, however, as he turned in his third straight rough start on Thursday, giving up three earned runs with five walks and four strikeouts in just 3 2/3 innings.

Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

1. Imploring a player to be more aggressive when he has the second most strikeouts and fourth highest strikeout percentage in baseball seems a strange gambit, but it’s been a focal point for  Yoan Moncada as his advanced batter’s eye has sometimes worked against him in the sense that he hasn’t afforded himself to drive hittable pitches. On Sunday, an aggressive approach paid off for the 23-year-old in the most opportune of spots, as he drove a first pitch fastball for a bases loaded, bases clearing double in the fifth inning to put the White Sox ahead for good in what turned out to be an easy 10-3 victory. He added a three-run homer, taking a grooved, 94-mph fastball on a 3-1 count out to right field (he swung at the first pitch of that AB, too, for what it’s worth).

Moncada’s been mired in a terrible slump since returning from the disabled list in mid-May, hitting just .195/.247/.305 with 56 strikeouts in 166 plate appearances entering play Sunday. But the tools that made him one of the top prospects in baseball and the centerpiece of the White Sox trade of Chris Sale 18 months ago were on display in what was undoubtedly the best game of his still very young career.

That last point is worth repeating again: His still very young career. Moncada still has fewer than a season’s worth of plate appearances in his career, and while it’s frustrating that Moncada isn’t one of those top prospects to come up and just start outright mashing, it’s important to remember that there’s no linear developmental path all prospects follow. Moncada has flaws, but he also has an immense amount of talent. And Sunday we saw the best that talent has to offer.

2. It’s been discussed enough during the last two seasons, but the focus during a rebuild is more on the individual progression of key young players than actual wins and losses. Along with Moncada, the White Sox got promising outings from two others in the form of Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodon in their pair of weekend victories over the A’s.

Giolito’s performance in Friday’s 6-4 win was perhaps more surprising but also more desperately needed. He looked more the part of his late-2017 or even Spring Training self over seven innings, striking out a season-high eight with a fastball that topped out at 96 and sharp breaking pitches. The line was only diminished after Rick Renteria sent him out to start the eighth inning at 89 pitches only for him to allow back-to-back singles that ultimately scored when Jace Fry and Chris Volstad couldn’t limit the damage. Still, it was the type of performance that makes one optimistic the pitcher the White Sox hope he’ll become is still in there somewhere.

“I felt in sync,” Giolito said. “[Omar Naváez] and I were working really well, finally commanding the fastball the way I should. Definitely the best I felt out there this year, for sure. Velocity was up a tick. Just felt right, felt in sync. Just competed from there.

“Feel for slider today was really good. I felt like there were a couple of times I could have gotten it down a little bit better with two strikes but other than that it was a good go-to pitch. Curveball feel was a lot better, though I didn’t throw it very much. Overall just felt like I was getting on top of all my pitches a lot better. I’ll look at it tomorrow but especially the angle of my fastball was probably the best it has been, too.”

Rodon wasn’t at his absolute peak in his eight innings of work Sunday, as we didn’t see the overpowering fastball or devastating slider induce a whole lot of strikeouts. He only had three, but was efficient in a 99-pitch outing with 69 strikes, which is nice, and perhaps more importantly zero walks. Despite the low strikeout total, he still got 10 swinging strikes, including eight with the fastball.

MOST importantly, though, is that through four starts Rodon looks healthy and unencumbered by the injuries that plagued him for most of the last year and a half. Seeing Rodon perform well and injury free for the rest of 2018 will make you feel a lot better for both him and the team going forward.

3. Believe it or not, it’s not all sunshine and roses with this 26-51 team. Dylan Covey got battered around for his second straight start before leaving with what turned out to be a groin injury. Fortunately for both him and the White Sox, it doesn’t seem as serious as the oblique that sidelined him for three months a year ago, but it’s still unknown how much, if any, time he will miss.

It’s amazing we’re at a point where Covey missing starts is considered a detriment to the team, but here we are. If he’s sidelined for any significant amount of time, the White Sox will have a couple of different options in terms of what to do with that rotation spot. The obvious and boring answer would be to insert Hector Santiago back in that spot, or even to call up Triple-A veteran Donn Roach, who’s 28-year-old but put together solid results for the Knights.

4. The option everyone will be clamoring for, of course, is the promotion of Michael Kopech. The 22-year-old top prospect has struggled mightily over the last month, and James Fegan of The Athletic detailed his command issues at great length last week, but given his pedigree and advanced stuff, the White Sox are bound to give him a shot at getting major league hitters out before long. He’s still posting high strikeout totals amid the slump, after all.

BP’s lead prospect writer Jeffrey Paternostro said in his weekly chat that “you should be a little worried” when it comes to Kopech, and when I asked him to expand on that thought he mentioned that, at some point, you get tired of waiting for the command to show up, particularly with a pitcher who is as close to major league read as Kopech.

It’s true that the command is a worry, but no prospect is a finished product by the time they reach the majors. Even with the struggles, you get to a point where you need to prove it at the major league level and Kopech has about reached that point. (Some may argue he was there long ago, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree). We don’t yet know if Covey is going to miss significant time, but if he does, whether or not the White Sox opt for Kopech will be interesting to see.

5. Kopech hasn’t been promoted, but several White Sox prospects were, in fact, promoted after their respective leagues’ All-Star breaks last week. You surely already know the whole list, but the highlights include Eloy Jimenez and Seby Zavala going to Triple-A, Dylan Cease and Luis Alexander Basabe going to Double-A, and Luis Robert going to High-A.

Starting from the top, Jimenez’s promotion had been telegraphed and was wholly unsurprising. That he’s off to a solid start in Charlotte (he hit his first home run Sunday) only further proves how close he is to the majors. Zavala’s promotion isn’t what you would consider surprising, but it’s an important step for a player who has continued to surprise along every step of his development since the White Sox selected him in the 12th round of the 2015 draft. The difference between Zavala and his former Double-A counterpart, Zack Collins, as James Fegan detailed, was the defensive improvements, with Chris Getz saying he’s “major-league ready” in terms of how he handles the pitching staff.

Cease’s promotion would have been considered aggressive at the beginning of the season, as the 22-year-old had yet to surpass 93 innings at any point in his still very young professional career. Having a clean bill of health thus far in 2018 has allowed him to show the advanced stuff that make many scouts project him as a potential frontline starter, as he struck out 82 in 71 2/3 innings at High-A before his promotion. Similarly healthy after an injury-riddled and ineffective 2017, Basabe is displaying all the tools that the White Sox believed he had when they acquired him in the Sale trade prior to last season.

Robert going to Winston-Salem after just 13 games in Kannapolis may surprise some, but even at just 20-year-old, he’s advanced enough that his initial Low-A assignment was never going to be much more than a pit stop.

One final note: In the area of prospects who aren’t yet technically prospects, first round pick Nick Madrigal is not yet a White Sox. The reason being that his collegiate season just won’t end. Madrigal and Oregon State begin a three-game series with Arkansas Monday night in the College World Series final. His season will end no later than Wednesday, we know now. One would hope he’ll be signing with the White Sox shortly thereafter.

Lead Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

2. This makes two positive nights at the plate in a row for Moncada who had a pair of very hard-hit doubles, and nearly had a third double in the second inning. Unfortunately, Indians’ left fielder Michael Brantley made a nice running catch on the warning track in deep left field to turn the line drive into a loud out. Moncada has drawn the ire of a lot of White Sox fans in recent weeks with his struggles since coming off the DL, so it’s important to keep context in mind when evaluating his season’s work. He entered last night’s game as a league average hitter, .257 TAv, at a premium defensive position, all while starting the season at less than 23 years of age. Moncada’s struggles with strikeouts were always going to yield lean periods in the early part of his career, as he works to iron out those issues. Expectations for Moncada have always been sky high, but not every prospect is going to be Kris Bryant right away. Moncada is still going to learn and develop over the rest of this year, and most likely the next couple of years, so let’s table the “bust” talk for say, two to three years, and revisit the issue after the 2021 season. Let’s not forget how well Moncada was playing before his DL stint and also remember that Moncada still has some of the best athleticism in the Majors.  I believe that is eventually going to translate into above average production at the plate.

3. Speaking of unfinished products, the full Carlos Rodon Experience was on display Tuesday night in Cleveland. His slider was electric when he was getting ahead in the count and locating it well, but Rodon’s control was largely erratic and that led to mixed results on the evening. Rodon may have only walked two Cleveland batters (and hit another), but after the first inning, he really wasn’t hitting his spots and looked like he was fighting his own mechanics all night. Still, Rodon managed to make it through 6 1/3 innings allowing only four runs, all of which came in the second inning. Rodon’s ability to go so deep into the game after throwing 46 pitches in the first two innings is really a testament to how good his stuff is, even when he doesn’t have pinpoint control. It seems like this has been said for years now, but the sky is the limit for Rodon if he can harness his control. Unfortunately, Rodon hasn’t been able to do so yet in his career for a variety of reasons. Hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of the season and settle into a grove and finally translate more of his potential into performance.

4. The White Sox had no answer, again, for Mike Clevinger. Once he got through a rocky first inning, Clevinger threw it into cruise control and dominated into the eighth inning. Just five days after he threw seven innings allowing only two runs while striking out eleven White Sox batters, he delivered 7 2/3 innings and struck out ten while allowing only one run. Clevinger truly embodies the “surprise contributor” as a player who has developed into a very solid MLB starter while never being ranked as a top MLB prospect. Hopefully the White Sox can find their own Mike Clevinger over the next couple of seasons, as teams generally need players like this to help support upswings in their competitive cycles.

5. In the third inning, Steve Stone and Jason Benetti started talking about the first major trade of the season, a deal that sent Kansas City Royals’ reliever Kelvin Herrera to the Washington Nationals for a trio of prospects. Stone opined that the Royals were smart to deal Herrera earlier in the season, increasing the amount of time the Nationals would benefit from adding a strong reliever to their bullpen. Stone also added that he thought the Herrera trade may jump start the trade market and lead to more deals in the coming weeks. Herrera is probably better than any reliever on the White Sox, but it’s encouraging to see the Nationals give up a couple of decent prospects for a bullpen upgrade. The White Sox will likely have a few veteran relievers available for trade, most notably Joakim Soria, who is having a very good year. It’s unlikely that any reliever brings back a top prospect, but if the White Sox are able to hit on just one prospect they bring in by trading some of the veterans on this squad, they could significantly improve the long-term outlook of the franchise. In the meantime, I’ll continue to root for positive contributions from the veterans while they’re still on the White Sox and hope that they can pass on valuable lessons to the younger players.

With the loss, the White Sox fall to 24-48 on the season. Up next is the series finale against Cleveland featuring Reynaldo Lopez and Corey Kluber.

Lead Image Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The White Sox are 6-4 since the calendar flipped to June, taking 2 of 3 from both the Red Sox and Brewers, two teams who are a combined 83-47, with a four-game split against the Twins sandwiched between those two series. Aesthetically, the last week and a half has been much more enjoyable than the first two months, to say the least.

The source of the positive results this weekend was mostly the starting pitching, as Dylan Covey, Rodon, and Reynaldo Lopez combined to allowed just three earned runs in 17 1/3 innings. Covey, in particular, continued his surprising ascent by going toe-to-toe with Sale. He struck out seven and allowed just three hits and one walk in six innings of work, and has been the most impressive member of the rotation since re-joining the team May 23. In four starts (excluding the brief doubleheader promotion he had in April), he’s struck out 25 and walked eight in 22 1/3 innings and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any individual start.

It’s been a helluva turnaround for the 26-year-old who was thrown to the wolves and promptly devoured last year as a Rule 5 pick after only throwing 29 1/3 innings above A-ball up to that point. A former first round pick whose career path and life completely changed when he was diagnosed with diabetes during a post-draft physical, Covey’s development has been anything but linear. It’s only been four starts, but the heavy sinking fastball that’s sat 93-95 has given hitters fits. Six of his eight swinging strikes on Friday came off the sinker, and against one of the best teams in baseball and opposed by one of the best pitchers in baseball, he put together the best start of his still young career, befuddling Red Sox hitters all night before a conservative Rick Renteria lifted him at just 83 pitches.

What Covey is going to be is still unclear. It’s only been four starts after all. But at the very least, he’s proven himself worthy of getting an extended look and further opportunities in a rotation that’s beginning to steady overall.

Rodon’s debut was mostly successful, even if it came during the White Sox one weekend defeat. After missing the first two months because of offseason shoulder surgery, the 25-year-old flashed the type of front-end stuff he’s always had while occasionally battling control that limited him to just five innings of work.

The rust was to be expected for a pitcher who has only thrown 69 1/3 mostly nice innings since the start of the 2017 season. Rodon is at his best when he’s working ahead and able to unleash his hellacious slider as a put-away pitch. But he often found himself behind in the count and relied on his change-up a bit more than you’d probably prefer considering it’s his third best pitch. Still, while his velocity was understandably not yet at full strength, he showed the ability to ramp it up when necessary to get out of trouble.

It wasn’t peak Rodon, but he showed no ill effects of the injury, and having a full-strength Rodon for the duration of 2018 will be a good thing for both this year’s team and the prospects of future contention.

Finally, there was Lopez, who again got positive results even if they may have been better than his peripherals. Six strikeouts and just one earned run in 6 1/3 innings works just fine, of course, but he also walked three and hit a batter, battling the usual bouts of wildness he’s displayed despite 13 generally successful starts.

Even if Lopez appears to be playing with fire from start to start and even hitter to hitter at certain points, he shows enough promise to instill hope even if we wait for what sometimes seems like an inevitable crash toward mediocrity.

While we often get impatient waiting for prospects to become what we want or think they’re going to become, it’s important to remember that you rarely get a finished product from someone Lopez’s age. That may seem overly optimistic, but Lopez is getting good results while simultaneously working through command issues and a developing breaking pitch. It’s entirely possible he does come crashing back to earth in the way the advanced stats predict, but he’s still shown enough promise to make you feel better about his future than you might have before the season began.

Lead Photo Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

• Carson Fulmer pushed his good stuff onto the scales against his horrible command, the horrible command won and now he’s walking about a batter an inning in Charlotte.
• Lucas Giolito finished 2017 well and looked great in spring training, including increased fastball velocity.  Now the fastball velocity is the lowest it has ever been in the majors (91.4 on average), he’s walking 14.3% of the batters he’s facing, by far the worst rate in the majors, and unsurprisingly has an ERA above 7.00.  Barring injury this is about as bad as it could have gone.
• Miguel Gonzalez, brought in to stabilize the rotation, did the thing where he tried to pitch through injury, got absolutely annihilated and is now on the 60-day DL.

The only reason the rotation is tied for last in the majors in ERA with 5.76 instead of 30th and not within shouting distance of 29th place is because James Shields has managed to muddle through admirably and Reynaldo Lopez has posted excellent run prevention results albeit ahead of merely okay peripherals.  Hector Santiago and Chris Volstad are present purely as insurance policies and frankly, their presence has been absolutely necessary as they’ve combined to soak up 71.67 innings of sub-5.00 ERA ball.  I’m not saying they’ve been great, but they’ve been better than a lot of the Plan A guys and without them the team would somehow be worse than 16-37.  It has to get better than this, right? Well, I won’t guarantee anything, but the rotation might undergo some serious changes in the near future:

• Carlos Rodon made significant progress from his 2015 rookie season and 2016.  Despite throwing to the worst framing catchers in the majors and finishing in the Top 10 for strikes called balls in the majors, he still essentially halved his walk rate over 165 innings.  Then 2017 was largely a lost year due to injury, with vague throwing arm pain culminating in shoulder surgery in the 2017-8 offseason.  Shoulder surgery is pretty much the last thing you want for a pitcher, but he looks to be nearing a return to the majors.  On Tuesday, he threw his third minor league rehab start in Charlotte, going 5 innings, striking out 8 while allowing only 5 baserunners and no runs.  Across 12.67 minor league innings he’s posted a 20:2 K:BB ratio while allowing only 1 run and walking two.  Obviously, the Rodon we think we know should be doing this against the minors, but at the very least there’s no red flag in the stat line as to his health or what he’s throwing.  Barring incident, Rodon should be back in the majors soon, and there’s every reason to believe he’ll be a massive upgrade for 20% of the rotation.
• Jordan Stephens has been old for every minor league stop along the way to Triple-A.  That’s what happens when you’re drafted out of college while recovering from Tommy John surgery.  However, he still turns 26 in September and the White Sox conservatively assigned him to Birmingham to start 2018.  After 40 dominant innings there, he got bumped up to Charlotte where he hasn’t skipped a beat.  After Thursday’s outing, Stephens has thrown four quality starts in four attempts for the Knights, generally limiting walks and homers well.  Stephens is more of a back-end profile, but he’s polished, compensates for unremarkable fastball velocity with good carry, and boasts a nice curveball.  He hasn’t been in Charlotte long, but at a certain point how do you keep down a 25-year-old pitching like this in Triple-A when your rotation is performing the way it has been?
• Of course, the elephant in the room here is Michael Kopech.  The lone blemish on his stat line remains a high walk rate, as he continues to miss bats at a prodigious rate while clamping down hard on quality contact.  His 3.86 ERA is sufficiently Good Not Great for the White Sox to keep him in Charlotte with a straight face, I suppose, but one has to imagine unless he gets hurt or suddenly regresses like crazy he’s going to be in Chicago before the All Star Break as the Super Two “deadline” passes.  He’s even added a good curveball to his already terrifying arsenal!

With Dylan Covey suddenly returning and featuring a 93-95 mph sinker we hadn’t really seen in 2017, a flood of reinforcements is beginning to arrive.  Watching White Sox games might get a whole lot more fun in short order.  It’s a low bar to clear, but hope is always a good thing.

Image credit- Patrick Gorski, USA Today

While this is not an enviable position for any team (just ask the New York Mets), for the White Sox and former No. 3 overall pick Carlos Rodon, it’s the reality each they find themselves in.

It was not long ago that young southpaw John Danks was in line to take over for an aging Mark Buehrle.

The Sox even chose to give Danks a five-year extension and let Buehrle leave in free agency, following then-manager Ozzie Guillen to the Miami Marlins in 2011.

Up to that point, Danks’ biggest accomplishment was his performance in the storied “Blackout Game,” he had positioned himself as one of the more talented young starters in the game, posting two consecutive 200-inning seasons and three straight sub-4.00 ERA seasons before age 26.

The White Sox trade of perennial Cy Young candidate Chris Sale in the winter of 2016 and subsequent trade of Jose Quintana the following summer left the team without a frontline starting pitcher for the first time since 2012. Although the Sale trade was a signal that the White Sox had chosen a new direction after years of mediocrity, it did, however, leave them without an ace. 

While losing a perennial Cy Young candidate is a tough blow, the White Sox had to feel good about knowing they not only received a potential replacement in return, in the form of Michael Kopech, but they had also groomed their own — Rodon — who was waiting in the wings and ready to take that next step.

Now, more than a year removed from Sale’s departure, the Sox are still without an ace on their staff of young, unproven starters and old journeyman innings eaters, and the up-and-coming starter who the White Sox had hoped would take the next step hasn’t.

The 25-year-old left-hander has shown flashes of his potential but has been unable to take the “next step” due to nagging injuries, including the most recent injury, and underwent shoulder surgery at the end of the season.

Sound familiar?

Thankfully in Rodon’s case, the arthroscopic shoulder surgery he had last fall isn’t nearly as serious as the torn shoulder capsule that ultimately brought Danks’ days as an effective starter to an end. But even still, shoulder injuries to pitchers are scary, and the fact that the last 12 months have been riddled with setbacks for a pitcher as talented as Rodon has to be frustrating for the White Sox, who obviously have big plans for him.

Rodon is throwing now, and Rick Hahn has thrown out June 1 as a potential return date for him. Is there room for concern? Absolutely. Like with Danks then, Rodon’s health is an important part of the White Sox future contention plans. But pitchers are notoriously fickle, and while there’s still a long road ahead and the White Sox remain one of the more prospect-laden organizations in baseball, it’s hard not to think about Rodon going down as another first-round pick whose career was never able to fully take off.

Lead Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports