Top White Sox prospect and 2014 No. 3 overall draft pick Carlos Rodon has been promoted to Triple-A Charlotte, Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune tweets. As anticipated, Rodon has moved quickly through the minors — he pitched 9 2/3 innings with Class A+ Winston-Salem, striking out 15 batters while walking five. The promotion to Charlotte (for whom he’ll start on Tuesday) means he’s skipping Double-A, which in turn likely means the White Sox think he’s close to being ready for the Majors. Here are more notes from around baseball.
- Top Cubs prospect Kris Bryant left Saturday’s Triple-A Iowa Cubs game with a foot injury, Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register writes (Twitter links). The injury was the result of a foul ball Bryant struck off his foot a few days ago. His foot is being X-rayed. The seriousness of the injury is unclear, but his coaches did seem to know about it before tonight. Bryant’s departure from the game set off speculation that he had been promoted to the big leagues, but it does not appear that he has been. He has a ridiculous .306/.415/.648 line in 234 plate appearances so far with Iowa.
- Two MLB insiders believe that Addison Russell will eventually become the Cubs’ starting shortstop despite the team’s surplus there, Jorge Arangure of the New York Times reports. “From what I’ve seen, [Starlin] Castro moves for sure,” says one. “Russell has the edge over [Javier] Baez.” Baez, for his part, says he enjoys playing second base.
- The Blue Jays have optioned reliever Chad Jenkins to the minors five times this season, and he’s just one of several Blue Jays who have been optioned four or more times this year, Brendan Kennedy of TheStar.com writes. Kennedy points out that the Jays have made more non-trade, non-injury roster moves than any team this season, about 40% more than the average team. GM Alex Anthopoulos says the Blue Jays option players in order to avoid having other players land on the disabled list. “We definitely haven’t used the waiver wire much this year, but we have consciously optioned players back and forth to avoid DL placements,” he says. For example, the Jays have had Liam Hendriks spot start three times in order to get their starting pitchers more rest. Of course, Kennedy writes, a limited number of players can be optioned, and so all the Jays’ roster moves can have the effect of moving one group of players up and down regardless of how they perform.
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio says the team is trying to improve its bullpen, making waiver claims for relievers as recently as today, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. The Brewers’ bullpen got off to an extremely hot start in April but has struggled a bit since.
I really hope the White Sox aren’t rushing Rodon just for the sake of rushing him. It’s crucial that a pick as celebrated as Rodon pans out, especially considering that the White Sox farm system is still thin.
It seemed to work well with Sale.
I still say that Sale is going to blow out his arm one day with the insane amount of pitches that guy throws every 5 days!
I think Doc Cooper manages his pitch count well. Its less insane than other starting pitchers around the league. If it does happen since it can be the case with any pitcher as you see this year, hopefully it would be after another parade or two in Chicago.
As much as I can’t wait for a Sale, Rodon and Quintana rotation, no need to rush CRod in starting his service clock. Next year should be fun though.
I wanna see rodon next year rick hahn dont have a problem with scott boras
Mets/Cubs trade for Castro!
Not going to happen. Cubs don’t want to move him and the Mets won’t make an offer the Cubs can’t refuse. He is on a team friendly deal and is an above average hitter. Also he is the only one of the cubs SS to have proven he is actually a major league player.
What do the Mets have to offer ?……….Nothing !
Your hopelessly dellusional
Well according to Cubs fans it won’t happen, because they will only trade Castro if they get Trout in return.
Anyway if they are arguing the proven part , I would be thrilled getting either Russell, or Baez back.
for Russell I’d deal
Syndergaard+Taylor+Fulmer/Gee
I’m interested by the fact that it’s Mark Attanasio saying that we put in claims on relievers. Who’s pulling the strings here? But that’s a debate we’ve been having pretty much ever since Ned Yost was fired with 12 games left in ’08.
Anyhoo, more importantly, who would we be claiming? I can’t really think of any relievers that would improve our bullpen who haven’t already been put on waivers, claimed, traded, or pulled back off of waivers.
Really hope Bryant isn’t injured. I don’t want anything slowing down his development going into next season.
Boy oh boy. I could really see Bryant blowing his foot out.