White Sox shut down Carlos Rodon for season with Injury, Future Uncertain

Former Wolfpack starting pitcher Carlos Rodon was in the midst of becoming a real star for the Chicago White Sox, but once again the injury bug has put his career on hold.

Twenty fve minutes before his scheduled start on Thursday, Rodon felt a bit of shoulder tightness and was scratched. An MRI on Friday showed shoulder inflammation, which in turn has forced the White Sox to shut him down for the remainder of the season.

“We’ll see. Still evaluating,” Rodon said. “I’ll definitely be back to pitch next year, no doubt about that. Just try to get healthy and figure out the problem.”

“For the future of the team and my future, I think it’s the best thing, the best way to go about it,” Rodon said. “I mean it’s tough news to take, but there’s not much I can do about it.

“Had some good starts, had a good run. Would’ve been nice to keep going, but these things happen and just got to get better.” (whitesox.mlb.com)

Certainly, shutting down Rodon is the right move for the White Sox. They are certainly not making the playoffs and they are in the process of rebuilding their roster with a younger core. Rodon is one of the major pieces of that core.

Over his past 7 starts, Carlos put up a 3.00 ERA with 45 Ks in 45 innings. He hopes to continue that success at the start of next season, but manager Rick Renteria had a pretty concerning quote:

“Obviously for us we would have liked to have had him out there on the mound gaining more experience and continuing to hone his craft. But there are only certain things we can do. There’s only certain things that we can control.” Renteria said. “At this point, it is what it is. I think as he starts to continue to recover and get back on track, hopefully for the coming season, we’ll just have to make up whatever we lost and try to gain ground at that point and take advantage of the skill set that he has.” (CSN Chicago)

Hopefully for the coming season? The skill set that he has at that point? The vague statements coming from the White Sox don’t sound so great, however, at this point, I think it’s because there are just more questions than answers. The MRI did not pinpoint a cause for the inflammation, so further testing will have to be done, but CSN Chicago Sports Talk group is pretty pessimistic about the future. See for yourself…

Let’s hope it’s just a tired shoulder and some rest and strengths training can get Rodon back on his trajectory to become the ace of the White Sox staff.