White Sox GM Hahn Remains Hopeful Rodon Can Help Playoff Chances

CHICAGO — White Sox general manager Rick Hahn has jokes. But apparently, so does Twitter when it comes to making armchair predictions about what starting pitcher the White Sox will roll out when they open the playoffs later this week against the Astros.

Hahn plucked a page from the Bears coach Matt Nagy's Book of Gamesmanship Monday when he said the Sox will wait until Thursday morning to reveal their postseason lineup. That top secret information will be preceded by Wednesday's breaking news of who takes the mound for the Sox in Game 1 of the American League Divisional Series in Houston. The Sox certainly have plenty of options – all of which will be critical to the Sox chances of reaching their ultimate goal of winning a World Series.

But while Hahn was busy keeping fans guessing whether Lucas Giolito or Lance Lynn will make the first postseason start, he joked that the break would also be a three-day stretch when Sox first baseman Jose Abreu wouldn’t have to endure target practice for the next three days. One courageous Sox soul took to Twitter to continue with the humor thread and jokingly offered up a creative Sox starting solution.

“Rick Hahn announces that the starter for game one of ALDS will be Andy Dalton as long as he is healthy,” a user posting under the handle “WhiteSoxTwitt3r” wrote Monday in a homage to Nagy’s broken record of a quarterbacking game plan that he again repeated Monday.

All joking aside, the Sox pitching depth —along with a healthy lineup is going to be key if they are to knock off the favored Astros. While one medical malady has kept the Sox Uber-talented lineup from being at full strength until only recently, the health of one of the Sox top pitchers could also factor into which direction manager Tony La Russa chooses to go against Houston.

Hahn said Monday that the Sox remain optimistic that Carlos Rodon — who won a career-high 13 games this season – will be ready to go for the playoffs. Rodon, who has battled shoulder and arm issues in the recent past, threw only 28 innings the final two months of the season after being steady and confident earlier in the season when thee Sox were running away with the American League's Central Division.

The All-Star Rodon threw a no-hitter in April and made the most starts and threw the most number of innings he has thrown since 2016. When Rodon is healthy, he has the ability to be a major contributor to a team that Hahn hopes is just getting started against the Astros. But if he's not healthy, the Sox aren't in a position to test him out. With that in mind, Hahn said Monday that the team will have to keep an eye on Rodon’s comfort level and soreness level before committing to anything more than one start against Houston.

“What shouldn't be lost in all this is we're sitting here today as the division champs thanks in large part to Carlos' contribution over the course of the last six months,” Hahn said, adding, Obviously, down the stretch here we had to be cognizant of the workload, how Carlos was feeling, and adjusted.”

Like his boss, La Russa wouldn't look too far into his crystal ball on Sunday when asked about Rodon. La Russa said Tuesday that Rodon's Tuesday bullpen session was positive and that by all indications, Rodon should be OK to make a start against the Astros during the ALDS. There's no question that everyone involved, from Rodon, to his 77-year-old manager to the architect of division champs is hoping for the best, understanding what a healthy Rodon could mean to the Sox's championship chances.

So time will tell just how ready Rodon is ready and what pitching option the Sox choose to go to. But all things being equal, the hopes that Rodon will get more chances to contribute to winning baseball only matters if a healthy Sox team can play up to its potential and give Rodon more chances to show what he's made of when games really matter.