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Jeff Samardzija could pitch opening day for the White Sox this season. Doing so would make “Shark” the answer to a fairly cool trivia question: Who started Opening Day for the Cubs and White Sox in consecutive seasons?

Bar trivia aside, there’s enough reason in White Sox camp that Samardzija may not be granted the honor.

“It’s certainly good to have options and in both Jeff [Samardzija] and [Jose Quintana] you got guys who would excel in that role,” White Sox GM Rick Hahn said. “I think it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of why you put guys in certain spots. Obviously, opening day is very symbolic, there’s a lot of ceremony involved, people’s emotions are running high. Either Q or Jeff could certainly handle that.”

Listen: Rick Hahn with Connor McKnight

Without missing a chance to show he’s looking at the long term Hahn continued.

“What’s more important to us is; When does the number one or number two spot come up again? And how do those matchups play out against our upcomming opponents,” Hahn said. “It just so happens that with the off day, and what we could probably do with our rotation, that one of those spots is going to get Minnesota and one of those spots is going to get Cleveland. So making [the Opening Day] decision is less about ‘the symbolism of who’s the opening day starter’ for us and more about playing the match-ups going forward.”

You know who talks like that? You know who moves a question about the first dayof the season in the direction of th entirety of the season?

A GM with his eyes set on more than 162 games.

Still, there’s the question of how this White Sox team is constructed when they break camp. For at least two weeks, they’ll be missing their Ace, their Cy Young contender. So, how many arms will they need?

“You have a general idea of when you get to camp about what the roster is going to look like and then you deal with injury setbacks or flukey things that you weren’t expecting and you gotta adjust,” Hahn said. “The way the schedule does play out we could conceivably go with eight relievers to start theseason prior to needing the fifth starter.”

Plenty of words have bee written about the prospects of Carlos Rodon and whether he can show enough to force the Sox to take him North. Much more likely, however, is the Sox going with a veteran like Brad Penny or Scott Carrol.

“Penny, obviously, has spent his entire career in the rotaiton,” Hahn said. “He’s thrown the ball well here and could conceivabley give you some length out of the bullpen. But that would be the first time in his career that we’ve asked him to do that versus having him potentially ready to start in that fifth spot if needed or some point down the road. Scott obviously excelled in the long roll. He did well in the rotaion, for the most part. But, you know, we’ve got some depth, some guys to choose from, and early in the season hopefully there’s less of a need for a long man and it’s more about who matches up best to get youthose outs in those first couple of series.”

There’s still a spot or two on White Sox up for grabs. Trully, it’s anyones guess as to how the catching situation turns out. At this point, Veteran Tyler Flowers is what he is. Adrian Nieto, no longer tied to Rule 5 status, could be sent down for more consistent at-bats but did well-enough last season. Then there’s Rob Brantly who, at 25, is just three seasons removed from a tantalizing .290/.372/.460 line. Granted, that’s just 100 at bats, but when a catcher puts those numbers up at any point, you raise and interested eyebrow.

One job that just might be gettin sewn up is second base. Micah Johnson has hit, run and flashed the glove inthe Cactus League.

“You know what, he’s probably done a little more than we could have asked for,” Hahn said. “[Johnson’s] been extrememly hot at the plate but more importantly, perhaps, he’s been flawless on the back end of double-plays; he’s been very comfortable defensivley. Knock on wood, the hamstring seems fully healed and not an issue any more. We try not to get too hung up on performance. It’s more about, like I said, the health and showing the skills and the abilities that we’re looking for out of the guy, but he’s been fantastic all around so far.”

So, with a prognosis that the injury to Chris Sale is expected to fully heal and  an off season met with rave reviews, Spring Training seems to be going just fine for the White Sox.

Oh, by the way, I took a few of photos today, too. Check ’em out.