Carlos Rodón offers blunt commentary on White Sox as Yankees visit Chicago

The New York Yankees are in Chicago for what should've been an easy layover series against the White Sox, but you knew they'd make it harder than it needs to be. Nonetheless, the Southsiders are on pace for the worst record in MLB history and one current Yankee knows the franchise very well.

Carlos Rodón got his name on the map with the White Sox, most notably with his rookie campaign and 2021 showing that boosted his stock in free agency that offseason. The left-hander was the third overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft and spent eight years in Chicago.

His showing in 2021 helped the Sox to a division title, but the team went down in the ALDS against the Houston Astros. No shame in that. The Astros have been a powerhouse since 2016. But then the wheels came off.

Chicago wouldn't pony up to keep Rodón, who'd just put up a career season in which he finished fifth in the Cy Young voting. He departed for the San Francisco Giants, and the rest of the team's moves before the 2022 season only resulted in regression.

The White Sox finished 81-81, then spiraled to 61-101 in 2023, and are now on pace to live in baseball infamy if they out-pace the losing efforts of the 1962 Mets, who finished 40-120 after being welcomed to MLB as an expansion team that year.

When asked about his former team prior to the Yankees' series this week, Rodón offered some blunt commentary.

“When I left, it looked like a team that definitely had a chance to win another division,’’ Rodon said Sunday. “I don’t know what happened.” 

“You see what the Royals have been able to do in that division with putting a team together. The White Sox are four years behind that. I was there for a rebuild, and then we got to the postseason, and here we are with them being in a rebuild again.”

Woof. Just remember, Yankees fans, it could always be worse. For as frustrating the Yankees are as a supposed "contender," their worst season in 30 years came in 2023 when they finished 82-80. There hasn't been a rebuild of any kind since the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the White Sox have botched multiple rebuilds in the last 15 years.

They didn't capitalize on their 2021 success and have been paying for it dearly ever since. Rodón seemingly saw the writing on the wall, too, and we'd bet he's glad he escaped that mess before he committed the rest of his career to a floundering organization.