CHICAGO -- So if Carlos Rodon is expected to be a mainstay in the Chicago White Sox’s starting rotation of the future, why can’t that future be now?

It’s an obvious question in the wake of the team’s announcement that their top pitching prospect is joining the major league roster as a reliever instead of a starter.

Rodon always has been a starter from high school to his days at North Carolina State to the minor leagues, both at the end of last season and for two games at the start of this year.

General manager Rick Hahn gave his key reason for taking things slowly with Rodon at the start of his major league career.

“In terms of Carlos Rodon, 2015 innings, we are dealing with a scarce resource,” Hahn said Monday. “I don’t think anyone could reasonably expect any pitcher a year out of college to make 32 starts and average six innings a start. It will be some level below that in terms of what we will be able to get out of this guy physically and developmentally.

“A way to maximize that is to start him out in the bullpen, get him some work here, get his feet wet, get him acclimated to the big leagues, everything that goes about being a successful big league pitcher, and then make that transition to the rotation when the time is right.”

Some of the top starters the White Sox have developed in recent history have gone the route Rodon is going now, from Mark Buehrle to Chris Sale, and even Jon Garland to an extent, although he was a Cubs prospect originally.

If there is any disappointment to making the big leagues in a role other than the one where he made a name for himself, Rodon wasn’t showing it.

“It's a dream come true,” Rodon said before Monday’s game. “That's the best way to answer it.”

The White Sox contemplated a promotion for Rodon last season, in the same year he was drafted, but ultimately decided to wait. Sale actually reached the major leagues in the same year he was drafted (2010).

With success at every level he has pitched, including a strong showing in big league camp at spring training this year, Rodon is confident he can contribute to the White Sox now.

“Yeah, I do, of course,” he said. “You have to be that way, you have to be confident. And you've got to be able to pitch out there for these guys and win.”

Rodon gave a hint of how good he can be when he faced the Kansas City Royals in spring training. He struck out nine batters over six innings, using mostly a fastball and a devastating slider. But the White Sox are trying to get him to develop a changeup, something he shied away from that night.

Rodon has mixed in heavy doses of the changeup ever since, and even in relief, when sometimes a dialed-back arsenal works best, the left-hander said he still will throw his change.

Whether the relief role slows the development of his new pitch remains to be seen.

“There are certain situations where it will be important to show that third pitch,” Hahn said. “And we have experience in doing this. Chris [Sale] was able to get back to getting that changeup to be a plus pitch once he was back in the rotation.

“It’s maybe not quite as clean as having him responsible for 80 to 100 pitches on a given night, in terms of working it in, but he knows it’s important and he knows what the end goal is and it’s still got the ability to be a plus pitch and valuable even out of the bullpen.”

The reality is that a fastball and slider might be all that Rodon needs for successful one- or two-inning relief outings. And even if Rodon’s outings are short and sporadic, as they often are with relievers, his presence should make the pitching staff better.

That’s exciting news for manager Robin Ventura. While Jose Quintana laid an egg during his start Sunday at Detroit, the entire pitching staff actually had been better of late, posting a 1.78 ERA over the 50 1/3 innings before Quintana took the mound. The addition of Rodon and the return of Jake Petricka make the White Sox’s staff that much stronger.

“We’re talking about a guy with a great slider, power pitcher,” Ventura said of Rodon. “I don’t really want to put anything on him except just go out and pitch. He has the confidence in himself, we have the confidence in him, that’s why he’s getting brought up. He can compete at this level with the stuff that he’s got.”

And while spring training is not always a tell-tale sign of how things will progress in the regular season, it was huge in giving Rodon the confidence that he can perform at the highest level.

“Just getting comfortable facing big league hitters,” Rodon said when asked about the biggest benefit of spring training. “You've got to make pitches and get guys out. Now it'll be a little different in front of 30,000 or so, and these games actually count.”