Rodón arrives: 'My goal is to come here and win'

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Carlos Rodón spent the first seven years of his career with the White Sox, so he admitted that he doesn’t know much about the National League West. He is familiar with the Giants, though, specifically their reputation for helping veteran pitchers improve.

Rodón, who finalized a two-year, $44 million deal on Monday, watched Kevin Gausman blossom into an All-Star in San Francisco last year, and he sees enough parallels to believe that he could be poised for a comparable rise in 2022.

“There are a lot of things that are similar,” Rodón said. “We’re both first-rounders. We’ve kind of had an up-and-down career. We’ve found some success as of late. I can see a lot of similarities. He’s righty, I’m left. He’s a little different, but it doesn’t go unnoticed. They’re very good with pitchers here.”

Gausman departed for the Blue Jays over the offseason, but the Giants are hoping Rodón will be able to fill that void atop the rotation and create a formidable 1-2 punch with rising star Logan Webb. Rodón, a 29-year-old left-hander, is coming off a breakout season in Chicago, where he earned his first career All-Star selection while going 13-5 with a 2.37 ERA and 185 strikeouts over 132 2/3 innings in 2021.

“Both in conversations with coaches that he’s been around and players that he’s been around, we just heard the same thing,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “When this guy is healthy and he’s on the mound, he’s as good as any in baseball.”

Rodón credited White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz, a former member of Kapler’s coaching staff, with helping him make adjustments to his lower half that led to his success last season. Since Katz is philosophically aligned with many of the Giants’ methods, Rodón is confident he’ll make a seamless transition to his new organization.

Rodón, the third overall pick of the 2014 Draft, has a lengthy injury history and dealt with left shoulder soreness and fatigue in the second half of last year, though he said the issue likely stemmed from the fact that he threw only 42 1/3 innings over the previous two seasons.

“The good thing is I finished last year throwing hard still, so I knew it wasn’t really an issue,” Rodón said. “If you look back to the 2020 season, I think I threw like nine innings. The year before that I threw like 30, so I think it kind of made sense why I was feeling tired and not feeling right. It was just a fatigue thing. I’m glad this past year I got to get to about 130 innings. That’s definitely a spot I can build off and hopefully throw a lot more innings than that this year.”

Rodón certainly has a major incentive to stay healthy, as his contract allows him to opt out after the 2022 season if he completes at least 110 innings this year. If he falls short of that threshold, his 2023 contract is guaranteed with the Giants.

“My goal is to come here and win,” Rodón said. “That’s kind of what I’m focused on. I’m not really focused on what my contract entails.”

Rodón has already made one move that will endear him to the San Francisco fanbase. He wore No. 55 with the White Sox, but he elected to switch to No. 16 with the Giants out of respect for franchise icon Tim Lincecum.

“That was easy to turn down,” Rodón said. “I know whose number that is.”