White Sox’ Carlos Rodon to make rehab start Saturday

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Carlos Rodon participates in a drill at the team’s spring training baseball facility Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon continues to progress in his recovery after arthroscopic shoulder surgery and will make his first rehab start for Class A Kannapolis on Saturday, general manager Rick Hahn said Thursday.

“He’s been throwing in extended spring training, made a number of starts there and each have gone well,” Hahn said before the Sox opened a four-game series against the Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field. “Saturday’s start at Kannapolis will be the first of multiple rehab starts.”

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Rodon’s last start for the Sox came on Sept. 2 last season. He was shut down with shoulder inflammation and made only 12 starts. He will be eligible to come off the 60-day disabled list May 28 and appears to be aiming for a return to the Sox in early June.

Rodon was 2-5 with a 4.15 ERA in 2017. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft, he is 20-21 with a 3.95 ERA with 383 strikeouts in 373 2/3 innings in parts of three seasons with the Sox.

Rodon is expected to pitch about five innings, Hahn said, in his first start Saturday.

Hahn also added these injury updates:

• Right-hander Miguel Gonzalez (shoulder) received a PRP injection and won’t throw for 10-14 days. He will be re-evaluated after that.

• All-Star outfielder Avisail Garcia is slowly progressing through a Grade 2 hamstring strain. There is no timetable for a rehab assignment.

“He will slowly continue to ramp up drills,” Hahn said. “He still feels it, and we’re being very cautious with how we ramp him up.”

• Outfield prospect Luis Robert (thumb), the No. 26-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, is hitting in cages and doing defensive drills in extended spring training and is expected to participate in game action there by the end of the month. He likely will join an affiliate in early June before spending the bulk of his season at Class A Winston-Salem, Hahn said, with the starting point depending on how many games he gets in at extended spring training.

• Right-hander Alec Hansen (forearm soreness) continues to progress and is throwing bullpens. Hansen, the No. 50 prospect per MLB Pipeline, hasn’t appeared in a game since pitching in a Cactus League game during spring training.

“Right now, he is just building,” Hahn said.

Be careful out there

Don’t be surprised to see Sox infielder Yolmer Sanchez playing some games in the outfield this season in order to give Matt Davidson more innings at third base and manager Rick Renteria more flexibility with his lineup overall.

Renteria cautioned, though, that the Sanchez experiment is in the “infant stages.” An infielder his entire pro career, Sanchez had less than a cup of coffee — it was more like a droplet, at most — with the Sox last season.

“He’s athletic, but it’s a change of position,” Renteria said. “You’re reading balls in the air. It’s a little different. The distance is a little longer, obviously. There’s some aspects of recognizing the flight of the ball off a left-handed bat, off a right-handed bat, which ways to turn, depths, things of that nature. I think those are all pieces that have to gradually come, so it’s just, for us, a thought we’ve been thinking of, conversing about.”Contributing: Steve Greenberg


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