CHICAGO -- White Sox senior vice president/general manager Rick Hahn spoke to media members for 30 minutes during a Monday afternoon Zoom call, discussing a number of topics in relation to the upcoming American League Division Series against the Astros.

Here are a few of those topics addressed by Hahn.

Carlos Rodón availability

Hahn has frequently talked about the stress placed upon players from every team moving from the 60-game pandemic-abbreviated season in 2020 to the full 162-game ledger in ’21. Factor that idea into the shoulder soreness/fatigue situation for Rodón, who went from 42 1/3 innings thrown over the past two seasons combined to 132 2/3 innings in his ’21 breakout performance.

The White Sox remain optimistic that Rodón will be able to contribute over the course of the next month, per Hahn. Rodón would only throw once against Houston and if the White Sox advance, they will survey the situation at that point.

“His strength and comfort, and general level of soreness and fatigue, is something we continue to monitor,” Hahn said. “What shouldn't be lost in all of this is that we're sitting here today as [AL Central] division champs thanks in large part to Carlos' contribution over the course of the last six months.

“He, along with our training staff and coaches I think deserve a world of credit for putting him in a position to succeed and demonstrate to the world what he's capable of doing when he's fully healthy. Obviously, down the stretch here, we had to be cognizant of the workload and how Carlos was feeling, and adjusted. But we came up with a program that was able to get him through the final few starts.”

Rodón allowed one hit over five scoreless innings in his last start against the Reds on Wednesday. He’s set to throw a side session on Tuesday under the watchful eyes of the White Sox front office and coaching staff.

“Strength, how he feels, how the ball is getting out of his hand, can he manipulate his pitches,” Hahn said of what they will be looking for with Rodón. “Does he feel he’s able to potentially go five, six innings, give us X number of pitches in a game?

“It’s about taking the time following the previous outing to put us in a position of strength and building off of that. And putting us in position to succeed when his name is called in the next round.”

Game 1 starter

Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito are the candidates, with Lynn having one extra day of rest if he were to pitch on Thursday in Houston and Giolito working on regular rest. Giolito won the AL Wild Card Series opener against Oakland in ’20. Hahn gave a thumbnail explanation on factors considered for the ALDS Game 1 decision.

“Experience. Recent performance. Matchups against the opponent. Potential second usage during the same series. Those all factor in,” Hahn said. “I don’t think we could go wrong with either Lance or Gio in Game 1.

“We’ve had a fair amount of conversation internally about how we are going to line those up and when the time comes to announce that, [manager] Tony [La Russa] will go into the reasoning behind who is 1 and 2. They are interchangeable in terms of capabilities and chance to go into a difficult environment and come away with a W.”

José Abreu

The 2020 AL Most Valuable Player Award winner has been under the weather with a non-COVID 19 related issue since Saturday. He didn’t play in Sunday's regular-season finale and should be back at full force for Tuesday’s workout. Hahn made a humorous reference in relation to one benefit of Abreu’s short break.

“Pito is not going to get hit for these three days,” said a smiling Hahn, referring to Abreu being hit 22 times by pitches this season. “So that’s a positive.”