White Sox: Rodon, Noesi choice could come down to bullpen

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MILWAUKEE -- There are many issues at play in who gets the next start but the most pressing could come down to who’s immediately available.

While the White Sox still haven’t determined whom they’ll turn to this weekend in Oakland — Carlos Rodon or Hector Noesi — the latter could be used on Monday night because of a short-handed bullpen.

Noesi, who was forced out of Saturday’s first game after 1 2/3 innings because he was hit above his right hip by a line drive, is listed as available in the series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers if he’s needed. But the White Sox must weigh that against Rodon’s workload as they remain committed to monitoring his innings and aren’t ready to cut him loose — even though they’re short on relief arms.

“A lot of it depends on these two days,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “Rick (Hahn’s) up here, so we’ll be talking about that and how we shake it out. With what happened in the doubleheader, (Sunday) us scoring late, helped us out a lot, not having to use guys in extra innings. That run was big. The win was great and was important, but it did help the bullpen quite a bit.”

[SHOP: Gear up, White Sox fans!]

Noesi could pitch Monday because the White Sox are down to six relievers after Rodon pitched in the place of Jeff Samardzija and Chris Sale, who both had their starts pushed back a day because of five-game suspensions.

Dan Jennings pitched a ton over the weekend and several other relievers went twice. Long man Scott Carroll also is down after he threw 67 pitches in place of Noesi on Saturday.

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“Hopefully we don’t have to use (Noesi), but if something arises where we need some length we might have to use him,” Ventura said.

With 22 1/3 combined innings pitched this season between the majors and minors, the White Sox are keeping a close eye on Rodon. Ideally the rookie would pitch no more than 150-160 innings, though the White Sox haven’t publically identified what is their maximum for Rodon. With 27 starts to go for 80 percent of the rotation, Rodon would easily surpass that totally were he to start the rest of the way.

“We know where we’d like him to end up,” Ventura said. “You’re trying to make sure you can stay within in that. There are too many variables right now of who we got, where he’s at, what’s best for him, us, all those things. We continue to discuss that. In the end, when we get through (Monday), we’ll have a better idea of where we’re at and how we need to go forward.”

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