Is Carlos Rodon worth a pickup?

Even before the White Sox's phenom makes his first major league pitch, he is highly owned in Fantasy, but Al Melchior makes the case for owners in shallower leagues to give him a try.

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Fantasy owners likely expected they would see Carlos Rodon in the majors this season, but if you figured the White Sox would call on him just three days after Kris Bryant arrived on the North Side of Chicago, then congratulations are in order.

Whether you were ready or not for Rodon's early arrival, here he comes, as the White Sox have indicated their intention to have him join the team on Monday. Rodon is already owned in 56 percent of the leagues on CBSSports.com, but if you are one of the many who already have him rostered, you won't need to find a rotation spot for him right away. The Sox are putting the hard-throwing lefty on the Chris Sale Plan, starting him off in a relief role. But whereas Sale spent more than a full season as a reliever, Rodon could conceivably join the rotation later this year.

That presents a conundrum for Fantasy owners. As a reliever, Rodon solely has appeal in very deep leagues -- ones in which great ratios and holds have value. Clearly, he is universally owned in those formats, not to mention many AL-only and mixed leagues where his current role won't render him worth starting.

The question, then, is whether owners in mixed leagues of 12 teams or fewer should beat the rush and pick up Rodon now. The closest comparable case would be Kevin Gausman, who is biding his time in middle relief for the Orioles as well as on rosters in 41 percent of our leagues. Gausman has already had some success as a major leaguer and, like Rodon, has the upside associated with being an early first-round pick in the MLB amateur draft. If standard and shallow mixed league owners have avoided the temptation of rostering Gausman, one could argue that they have no business picking up Rodon.

Though Rodon's time in the minors has been brief, totaling 34 1/3 innings, he has dominated the opposition, holding them to a .215 batting average and tallying 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Also with John Danks and Hector Noesi comprising the last two spots in the White Sox's rotation, Rodon may have an even easier path to a starting role in 2015 than Gausman does. For those reasons, it's worth putting a claim in on Rodon now. Maybe you'll eventually decide to dump him if you need the bench space for a more immediate need, but there's no reason to put off adding Rodon in any format where you can stash a player on reserves.