Denial 

Since the day that pitchers and catchers reported to White Sox camp, there was a bit of mystery surrounding Carlos Rodon. Rather than throw with the rest of the pitchers, Rodon was on his own schedule. That schedule revolved around private bullpen sessions with the coaching staff. The White Sox, and even Rodon himself, were quick to dispel any rumors that he may be injured. They were simply taking things slow. When it was announced that he might not even make a start during the first run through the rotation, worries arose again. Those worries were quickly forgotten when Rodon showed up and threw four impressive innings in his first start of Spring Training.

It was so easy to tell ourselves that everything was going to be fine. The White Sox were urging everyone to adopt that state of mind. He pitched well. All signs were that everything was going to be alright. Their slow path for him to start the season was merely a tactic to keep his arm from undergoing unnecessary stress. Even now that he’s having an MRI it’s easy to deny that anything is seriously wrong. After all, the initial exam went well according to Rick Hahn, and that his slow schedule had nothing to do with his injury. Perhaps there is a chance that he is actually okay and this is simply the utmost precaution.

Anger 

With the White Sox trading away Chris Sale and Adam Eaton for a ton of pitching talent, there is a simple caveat. Those pitchers have to pan out. The same applies to pitchers who were already in the system or on the team. Carlos Rodon hasn’t quite panned out yet. Sure, he’s already been good enough to pass as a middle of the rotation starter in his first two seasons. However, he hasn’t quite reached the expectations laid out before him on draft day. A serious injury would only make things worse.

There’s absolutely nothing worse than having a rebuilding team, with almost no motivation to win games, lose a key young player to injury. Almost any other thing that happens to the team would be endurable. But not this. This is too far.

Bargaining 

Pitcher injuries are never good. But they happen. They happen all the time to pitchers on teams around the league. It’s the cost of doing business, especially with young pitchers. If injuries have to happen to this White Sox pitching staff, couldn’t it have been someone else? I wouldn’t wish an injury on anyone, but Rodon is so important and has so much potential. Why did it have to be Carlos Rodon, the young pitcher with so much promise?

Depression

There’s a very really chance that this injury is far more serious than the White Sox are letting on. Sure, an MRI is often used as a precaution. But it should concern us just a little that the team was so secretive about the speed of Rodon’s spring up to this point. The combination of slow start to the spring, secret bullpen sessions, arm soreness, and an MRI don’t exactly inspire confidence. Any trouble with the arm is worrisome, and bicep soreness could point towards trouble with the elbow. If we continue to let ourselves fall down this slippery slope of worry, we arrive at the possibility of Tommy John Surgery. While there’s no indication that Rodon is anywhere close to needing that sort of serious surgery, the possibility naturally pops into our heads. Certainly that would have a massive impact on the direction of the rebuild from here on out. This could be very, very bad for both Rodon and the White Sox.

Acceptance 

Pitchers get injured. As a White Sox fan, it’s hard to remember this. The luxury of Chris Sale and Jose Quintana over the past four seasons has allowed us to push the possibility of serious injury to a top starter to the back of our minds. The reality is that this sort of thing happens to teams around the league all the time. In fact, fans of other teams might even go so far to say that we should be thankful that it’s simply bicep soreness. Perhaps a little rest is all it will take for Rodon to be back in tip top shape. What this does mean, however, is that he’s likely to start the season on the disabled list. This causes issues for the White Sox pitching depth as they are, according to Rick Hahn, attempting to move their pitching prospects much more slowly through the system.  Whoever takes Rodon’s turn(s) in the rotation, it will not be a prospect that they don’t think is completely ready.

The important thing to note right now is that it’s too early to really freak out about an injury of this sort. Once the results of the MRI are known, there can be either a sigh of relief or moment of dread. For now, we know that Rodon has been mysteriously dealt with all spring long and will undergo an MRI to determine if there is serious injury to the arm. It’s not the greatest news in the world, but so far it’s not completely damning either.

Lead Photo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Meanwhile, today Bruce Levine wrote a column about a conversation he had with Jerry Reinsdorf, wherein Mr. Reinsdorf reiterated his desire to compete in 2016, and vigorously denied any interest in selling off major league assets. In a way it’s encouraging to hear that they haven’t resigned themselves to another year under .500 during Chris Sale‘s prime. On the other hand, it’s hard to find acts that match this desire to win. Justin Morneau is the first bat that has been added from the outside of the organization since the season started, despite the team having a team TAv of .254, good for 25th in MLB. They’ve been DHing Jimmy Rollins and J.B. Shuck, for crying out loud.

Some of this is beyond the team’s control.  You can’t buy if nobody is willing to sell.

On the other hand, every problem this White Sox roster has–paper-thin depth on offense, Avisail Garcia being completely useless in every conceivable way, the back end of the rotation, Tim Anderson representing 100 percent of the internal reinforcements that could possibly matter, Carlos Rodon experiencing growing pains–was something that was glaringly obvious over the winter.  Sure, Jose Abreu picked a bad time to have the worst couple months of his career, but other than that, is anything that has happened this season surprising? Is there any single player on the roster who is performing in an unpredictable way?

This is why all winter long I was in a state of despair and frustration as the biggest free agent acquisition was Austin Jackson for $5 million.  And sure, maybe Zack Burdi turns out to be a cool reliever soon, but is that really better than adding Dexter Fowler and his career .365 OBP to this team? What about Ian Desmond? And if you aren’t going to add in free agency over the winter, this is the position you’re in. Also, if you limit yourself to trades–winter or mid-season–you wind up having to give up talent to get it.  Todd Frazier was a great acquisition, but you did lose Trayce Thompson to get him, and Trayce Thompson would be really, really helpful right now.

By failing to solve the problems that were obvious then and have all materialized in horrifying fashion in 2016, they’re now stuck waiting until the end of July–when most of the season is over–before they can get meaningful help.

Frankly, if anything, the team has been lucky. J.D. Martinez, Alex Gordon, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Moustakas, Michael Brantley; division rivals have been losing their most important players, and the White Sox still find themselves in fourth place. A 23-10 start and a laundry list of rival All-Stars being shelved on the disabled list was about as good of a scenario as this organization could have hoped for, but unfortunately, they have basically been hapless bystanders along with fans as everything good about the season caught fire and sank into the ocean.

If the White Sox miss the playoffs this year, they will enter 2017 with Todd Frazier and Brett Lawrie in the last years of their deals, and Chris Sale and Jose Quintana another year older.  It’s pretty crazy to think that this team turned a No. 13 overall pick and a minor league free agent into a dirt cheap 1-2 punch as good as anybody’s in MLB and they may not make the playoffs at any point while they are on the roster, but here we are.

Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski — USA Today Sports Images