Because the White Sox can't share good news without breaking bad news, the encouraging return of Lucas Giolito was saddled by the loss of Carlos Rodón, who is battling inflammation in his left elbow. The length of his absence is undetermined.
(Live studio audience: HOW UNDETERMINED IS IT?)
It's so undetermined that Rick Hahn said "everything is on the table," and Rodón is not fazed by the prospect of Tommy John surgery.
Sorry, these are supposed to be funnier.
"Honestly, I’m only 26 years old, luckily, and hopefully I can play this game for 10 more years,” he said. “So I’m still fairly young. If it’s Tommy John, so be it to get me back on this field.”
Tommy John surgery is nothing to be blasé about, especially given the immediate context in which Rodón ponders the concept. Zack Burdi is still seeking normalcy in workload and stuff in his 22nd month after surgery. Also, Micker Adolfo just went on the injured list with a recurrence of soreness in his surgically repaired elbow -- and he'd been DHing the whole time. Given that Luis Robert took Adolfo's roster spot and Adolfo's still within a year of his surgery, there's a chance the injury is a way to give him a breather and reconfigure the outfield, but we'll find out in a week.
Even if you don't count the 22-year-old Adolfo as a like case, Burdi is just 24, or two years younger than Rodón's "only 26." Rodon would also be undergoing his second significant procedure on his throwing arm when accounting for the shoulder surgery at the end of 2017, so age may not be its usual reliable self when it comes to impact.
Hopefully Rodón doesn't need Tommy John surgery, although the combination of elbow and forearm tenderness is never a good thing. Neither is edema, as doctors found blood in his elbow flexor muscle. I'm guessing Rodón's "so be it" is an attempt at a stiff upper lip in face of bad news, not an underestimation of any surgery that lies ahead. Dane Dunning deployed a similar attitude as he tried to avoid having his elbow opened, and we'll see how he recovers from his own TJS.
We talked about Rodón's place in the rebuild last year, and my perspective was that the White Sox couldn't bank on getting a meaningful return for him in a trade, and Rodón didn't figure to make bank in free agency due to all the missed time, so they were best suited to let Rodón give whatever he could give them through the end of his seven years of team control. The lack of certainty -- both in terms of cost and availability -- was unfulfilling, especially following years of easy accounting for the White Sox rotation, but it was the best possible course. Now the White Sox and Rodón have to confront the second-least satisfying conclusion to all of it.
The least satisfying conclusion would be the end of his White Sox career, but he'd still theoretically be around for 2021. The White Sox just wouldn't be able to count on him being any shape to contribute for meaningful lengths of time whenever he is back. This combination of upside for the price with a war-torn health record basically puts him in the Nate Jones Zone, and perhaps there's some value to knowing that in May 2019 instead of May 2020. That's about the only value to be found right now.
