Healthy Rodon just wants to help White Sox win
Carlos Rodon wasn't quite sure what uniform he'd wearing this season after being non-tendered by the White Sox in December.
He did have a preference.
"There was various interest, quite a few teams called," Rodon said Sunday. "I had some options, but Chicago is kind of like home and it would be hard to leave."
Drafted by the Sox with the No. 3 overall pick in 2014, Rodon has had trouble staying healthy and he's seen a lot of losing over parts of six seasons on the South Side.
Saying his health rating is "100%" this spring, Rodon wound up rejoining the White Sox on a one-year, $3 million contract at the end of January.
Whether he winds up claiming one of the two open spots at the back of the starting rotation or pitching out of the bullpen, the 28-year-old lefty just wants to be useful to a Sox team that's on the rise.
"I was in the beginning and the middle of that rebuild, sometimes pitching, sometimes not," Rodon said. "I know what it's like to lose and it's not fun at all. That's kind of the reason why I wanted to come back here, man. I wanted to come back and win and be a part of it and actually contribute.
"Because I contributed to the losing side, I want to contribute to the winning side now. It's a special group, a lot of young arms, a lot of young bats. A very young team and now we've mixed in some veterans and we have pieces that I think can come together and have a very, very good chance at winning a championship."
After going 18-16 with a 3.90 ERA and striking out 307 in 304⅓ innings in his first two seasons with the White Sox, Rodon has had shoulder and elbow surgeries the last four years.
He was limited to 7 games in 2019 and 4 last season, when he was 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA.
Rodon missed most of last year with a sore shoulder, but he was throwing hard when he came off the injured list late in the season.
"I know it's there, I know it's in the arm," Rodon said. "Now it's time to go do it. I just want to get on the mound and face hitters and show that I can still pitch."
To help him stay healthy, new pitching coach Ethan Katz is putting in extra work with Rodon during training camp.
"One of the things with him that I saw going through watching his delivery, he'd get very quad dominant and then he gets very cross-fired," Katz said. "He had the issue staying healthy, obviously. There was some stuff in the lower half we wanted to address and the minute we signed him back we've been on the phone, talking, going through that process and once we got here been able to work hands on.
"He's starting to understand how his lower half is supposed to move more efficiently. It's just going to take time. When you've done something for a long time it's hard to get out of that, but over time we hope we can tap into things that he hasn't been able to do."