A Stopped Clock

I wanted the White Sox to go after Carlos Rodon, sort of. To say that pitcher and team had a connection if not a history would be an understatement. Maybe some of both scared off GM Rick Hahn. I don’t want to give too much credit to Hahn, who is the embodiment of the stopped clock at work, if ever there was one. Hahn mostly gets it wrong, though he can be right, oh, twice a day. Consider Rodon. Today, I read Steve Greenberg’s column in the Sun-Times, in which Rodon says he took the White Sox nontendering him after the 2020 season “as a slap in the face.” Never mind that he came back to sign a one-year deal with the team for 2021, when he threw his no-hitter. What matters to Rodon is that over the last two seasons, going a combined 27-13with a 2.67 ERA for the Sox and Giants, he was able to “just shut up a lot of people, and it felt good.” Greenberg mentioned in passing that Rodon is going to start the season for the Yankees—his new team after he signed a six-year, $162 million deal in the offseason—on the IL. Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman is calling it a “mild strain” in Rodon’s left forearm. Rodon was quoted on the Yankees’ website saying that, if it were the postseason, “I’m taking the ball.” Maybe. Or he could be injured or left off the roster because of recurring injuries. Keep in mind that when he went 13-5 for the Sox in 2021, Rodon missed starts in the second half and ended up pitching only 132.2 innings. Last season for the Giants, he threw a career-high 178 innings. And now an elbow stain that lands him on the IL? Hmm. When the Sox needed him most in game three of the 2021 ALCS against Houston, Rodon couldn’t make it out of the third inning. This all makes me wonder if Rodon isn’t the pitching version of Nick Madrigal, a perfect player over the course of a college season but prone to injury once he turns pro. Parting ways with Madrigal and Rodon—that may be Rick Hahn the stopped clock getting it right. After getting wrong in the first place, of course.