Rodon dealing himself into ace role with White Sox

Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez have been in the starting rotation all season, and the Chicago White Sox are still trying to figure out where they fit in the future.

The Sox are also keeping close tabs on minor-league pitching prospects like Michael Kopech, Dane Dunning, Dylan Cease, Spencer Adams and Alec Hansen.

Carlos Rodon was the forgotten starter earlier in the season, and the White Sox weren't quite sure how the left-hander would respond after having arthroscopic shoulder surgery last September.

"The procedure revealed significant bursitis in his left shoulder, which was debrided," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said after Rodon's surgery. "The good news is that both the labrum and the biceps were viewed as normal during the procedure and Carlos is expected to make a full recovery. All things considered, it was obviously as good of a result as we could hope for, knowing we got to the point where he needed to have this arthroscopy to determine exactly what was troubling him in the shoulder."

Former White Sox starters John Danks and Freddy Garcia also had shoulder surgeries during their playing days, and neither came back throwing as hard as they once did.

As Hahn noted, Rodon's labrum and biceps were in good shape, but the Sox still didn't completely know how effective the 25-year-old pitcher would be when he did return this season.

Rodon is answering all questions in a positive fashion.

In Tuesday night's 4-2 win over Los Angeles at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the left-hander had a no-hitter going until Andrelton Simmons singled with two outs in the sixth inning.

Rodon pitched 7⅔ innings and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks to go with 8 strikeouts.

"The guy threw a really good game," Angels second baseman Ian Kinsler told reporters. "He had us chasing his slider down and in to the right-handers a lot. I think we were all doing it."

Since coming off the disabled list on June 9, Rodon is 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA in 8 starts. Over his last 3 starts, the No. 3 overall pick in 2014 draft has given up only 4 earned runs in 21 innings while striking out 21.

Rodon has yet to pitch a full season since breaking in with the White Sox in 2015. Now that he's healthy and still throwing as hard as he did before surgery, he's looking like a future ace.

"You can put him in a better than average class, a top tier, 1-2-3 pitcher, a championship-type caliber competitor," manager Rick Renteria said of Rodon. "It opens up the door to us potentially having quite a few guys in the rotation here in the near future that are able to give you what you need in order to be able to compete."