Carroll sees bullpen role as opportunity

CHICAGO -- There's nothing but an upbeat attitude coming from Scott Carroll in regard to his move from the White Sox rotation to the bullpen.

Although Carroll has started in 112 of his 143 professional appearances, he views the continued chance to stay on the big league roster as a long reliever and spot starter as the organization's belief that he can help the team.

"It's another great opportunity," Carroll said. "It shows me that they want me up here. They think I can contribute. They still see my skills and what I can bring to the team as something that's valuable up here at the big league level. I'm going to embrace this situation and take the bullpen as a great experience."

Carroll posted a 1-3 record with a 6.49 ERA over five starts. With Chris Sale returning Thursday, the White Sox elected to keep Hector Noesi in the rotation and designate reliever Frank Francisco for assignment. Carroll believes long relief represents the most structure you can have in the bullpen, in that he'll be pitching multiple innings but not multiple days.

"We liked how he can keep the ball on the ground and perhaps in a relief situation can come in with runners on base and get a double play and perhaps add a couple innings behind us to add a little length that's needed in the bullpen right now," said White Sox general manager Rick Hahn. "[Noesi] is more comfortable in the starting role, and we feel we've made progress with him in the starting role in terms of getting him where we want him to be.

"Having a regular schedule for that makes it more likely we're going to get to the point where we want to with him than putting him in the pen right now and not being as consistent with his usage," Hahn said.