Mike Clevinger

White Sox, Mike Clevinger Agree To Minor League Contract

By Anthony Franco | February 20, 2025 at 11:55pm CDT

The White Sox are in agreement with Mike Clevinger on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The ACES client receives a non-roster invite to Spring Training.

Clevinger returns to Chicago for what’ll be a third straight season. He signed a $12MM deal with the Sox over the 2022-23 offseason. That was a generally successful pickup, as he turned in a 3.77 earned run average through 24 starts. That came with a below-average strikeout rate for a second consecutive season, leading to a quieter market last winter. Clevinger remained unsigned beyond Opening Day. He eventually returned to Chicago on a $4MM deal.

As a result of the late signing, the veteran righty agreed to start the season in the minors. That afforded him a few weeks to build his arm into game shape. The White Sox recalled him in early May. He took four turns through the rotation, allowing 13 runs (12 earned) across 16 frames. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple months. Clevinger was building back from that when the Sox announced in late July that he’d undergo season-ending surgery to address a disc issue in his neck.

The injury-plagued season limited Clevinger to minor league offers as he enters his age-34 campaign. He’s clearly comfortable with the White Sox, where there’s plenty of opportunity in the rotation. Chicago has added Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson on one-year deals this offseason. No other starter on their 40-man roster has even reached one year of major league service. Clevinger joins Justin Dunn and Jonathan Heasley as non-roster invitees who have MLB experience.

White Sox Claim Enyel De Los Santos Off Of Waivers From Yankees

By Leo Morgenstern | August 17, 2024 at 4:12pm CDT

The White Sox have claimed right-handed pitcher Enyel De Los Santos off of waivers from the Yankees, the team announced. The club also recalled right-hander Gus Varland from Triple-A Charlotte and placed fellow right-hander Steven Wilson on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain. In addition, the White Sox transferred righty Mike Clevinger to the 60-day IL. The veteran underwent season-ending neck surgery in July. Transferring Clevinger to the 60-day IL frees up a space for De Los Santos on the 40-man. However, the White Sox will need to make an additional transaction in order to add him to the 26-man roster.

De Los Santos, 28, started the 2024 season with the Padres, who acquired him over the winter in exchange for Scott Barlow. Across 44 games for San Diego, De Los Santos pitched to a mediocre 4.46 ERA, giving up 21 runs (20 earned) on 39 hits over 40 1/3 innings. His underlying numbers were a little more promising (3.22 SIERA, 3.91 xFIP), and he was solid for the Guardians from 2022-23, putting up a 3.18 ERA and 3.57 SIERA over 120 appearances. Nonetheless, the Padres ran out of room for him after acquiring several new relievers at the trade deadline, so they flipped him to the Yankees alongside pitching prospect Thomas Balboni Jr. in exchange for minor league outfielder Brandon Lockridge.

The Yankees quickly soured on De Los Santos, however, designating him for assignment earlier this week. Funnily enough, the final straw for De Los Santos in the Bronx might have been his outing against the White Sox on Monday, when he gave up seven earned runs to his future team in 1 2/3 innings of work.

At this point in the season, the White Sox are simply looking for live arms to help them get to the finish line. They rank last in the AL with a 5.03 bullpen ERA, and their relief corps has been even worse as of late, pitching to a 6.17 ERA since the All-Star break. De Los Santos should be more than capable of providing the White Sox with innings over the final weeks of the season, and he could prove to be quite a smart pickup for Chris Getz and Co. if he rediscovers his 2022-23 form. He will be eligible for arbitration in 2025 and ’26, should the White Sox choose to keep him around.

The White Sox claimed Varland, 27, off of waivers from the Dodgers earlier this month. Neither his Triple-A numbers nor his MLB stats are particularly inspiring, but he can serve as additional bullpen depth for Chicago. Varland has a career 5.81 ERA and 5.45 SIERA across 26 1/3 innings with the Brewers and Dodgers over the past two years. Meanwhile, he has a 7.47 ERA and 5.00 FIP in 37 1/3 innings at Triple-A this season.

Wilson, 29, joined the White Sox this offseason as part of the trade that sent Dylan Cease to the Padres. Although he put up solid numbers during his two seasons in San Diego (3.48 ERA, 4.20 SIERA in 106 IP), he has had a difficult year in Chicago. Not only is this his second stint on the injured list with back troubles, but he has a 5.71 ERA and 5.38 SIERA in 40 appearances. According to Win Probability Added (WPA) and FanGraphs WAR, he has been one of the ten least valuable relievers in the AL this season.

Mike Clevinger To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

By Nick Deeds | July 27, 2024 at 4:40pm CDT

The White Sox announced this afternoon that veteran right-hander Mike Clevinger will miss the remainder of the 2024 season following disc replacement surgery in his neck, which he’s scheduled to undergo on August 1. The 33-year-old has been on the injured list due to elbow inflammation since late May but started a rehab assignment at the Triple-A level last month.

Clevinger, 33, will ultimately make just four starts in the majors this year after signing with the White Sox on a $3MM deal shortly after Opening Day. He struggled in the limited time he was healthy enough to take the mound with a 6.75 ERA and 6.21 FIP in 16 innings of work. It’s a disappointing showing for both player and team in Clevinger’s second consecutive year with the White Sox, particularly after he delivered a solid season in 2023 when he posted a 3.77 ERA and 4.28 FIP in 131 1/3 innings of work while ending the season on a strong note with a 2.45 ERA over his final 11 starts.

That strong stretch to end the 2023 campaign was reminiscent of the veteran’s best days, when he pitched for Cleveland. After a difficult rookie season in 2016, Clevinger broke out in 2017 to become one of the better starters in the game and over the next three seasons posted a fantastic 2.96 ERA with a 3.32 FIP in 447 2/3 innings of work. Among pitchers with at least 400 innings of work across those three seasons, Clevinger’s ERA ranked sixth in the majors behind a quintet of multi-time Cy Young award winners: Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Corey Kluber.

Unfortunately, things came off the rails for Clevinger shortly after he was traded to the Padres during the shortened 2020 season. He underwent Tommy John surgery late in the year and missed the entire 2021 campaign while rehabbing. He’s struggled to stay on the mound ever since, having pitched just just 303 1/3 innings of work total since the start of the 2023 season. While his overall numbers during that time paint a picture of a roughly average back-end arm, he’s frequent injury woes and step back from his peak in the late 2010’s have left him unable to contribute anything even close to his former dominant form.

While Clevinger’s injury woes and lackluster results when he did take the mound this year left him a somewhat unlikely trade candidate in the days leading up to Tuesday’s deadline, his impending surgery not only eliminates whatever remote possibility of a trade still existed but also leaves the White Sox without a veteran arm who otherwise may have been able to fill out the rotation following the possible departure of arms like Erick Fedde and Garrett Crochet, both of whom have found themselves in the rumor mill quite frequently this summer.

A timeline for Clevinger’s return to the mound isn’t yet clear, though it’s worth noting that veteran outfielder Jesse Winker underwent a similar procedure in October 2022 and was back in action in time for Spring Training last year. If Clevinger follows a similar timeline, he’ll enter free agency this winter coming off a lost season in 2024 but likely to be ready to go in time for when pitchers and catchers report next February.

AL Central Notes: Crochet, Clevinger, Wacha, Lange

By Mark Polishuk | June 16, 2024 at 4:27pm CDT

Unsurprisingly, the White Sox have set an “exorbitant” asking price on Garrett Crochet in early trade talks, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes. As we already saw this past winter with the Dylan Cease trade negotiations and the eventual deal that sent Cease to the Padres, the Sox are naturally out for the biggest return possible when moving any of their most valuable trade chips. Crochet definitely fits that description, as he has broken out as a starting pitcher this year and is under arbitration control through the 2026 season.

Chicago isn’t likely to drop its demands much (or even at all) until closer to the deadline, and Crochet’s arbitration control also gives the Sox some extra leverage since the team doesn’t need to move the southpaw any time soon. If anything, Crochet having a full and healthy season as a starter might only increase what the White Sox might be looking for in trade talks during the offseason, when the Sox could speak to a wider array of potential suitors.

Brewers Notes: Rotation, Adames, Uribe

By Steve Adams | June 7, 2024 at 4:00pm CDT

Rotation help looked like a potential area of deadline focus for the Brewers even heading into the season, and that was before a veritable avalanche of injuries left their starting staff in shambles. Milwaukee currently has Wade Miley, Jakob Junis, Robert Gasser, DL Hall and Joe Ross on the big league injured list alongside Brandon Woodruff. Miley (Tommy John surgery) and Woodruff (2023 shoulder surgery) won’t pitch again this season.

That series of health woes has left Milwaukee with a patchwork rotation comprised that features only three set members at the moment: staff ace Freddy Peralta, journeyman Colin Rea and swingman-turned-starter Bryse Wilson. The Brewers announced earlier today that righty Tobias Myers will start tonight’s game and has since optioned lefty Aaron Ashby to Triple-A (clearing way for the selection of righty James Meeker’s contract). They’ll feature plenty of “TBA”s in the near future when looking at upcoming pitching matchups.

Incredibly, the Brewers are not only still in first place but have a relatively commanding 5.5-game lead over the division at the moment. Still, it’s wholly unsurprising to see FanSided’s Robert Murray suggest that starting pitching will be a major point of focus for Milwaukee’s front office in the weeks leading up to next month’s trade deadline. Murray writes that the Brewers “considered” righty Mike Clevinger in free agency before the 33-year-old re-signed with the White Sox on a one-year deal.

Milwaukee’s level of interest in Clevinger following four shaky White Sox starts and an IL placement for elbow inflammation isn’t clear, but he’d be a reasonable low-cost pickup — both in terms of salary ($3MM base) and cost of acquisition. Clevinger has pitched 16 innings with a 6.75 ERA, a 19.2% strikeout rate and an 11.5% walk rate. He did not complete five innings in any of his four starts with the Sox prior to being placed on the 15-day IL in late May. There’s still seven weeks for him to get healthy and get back to his 2023 form, when he tossed 131 1/3 innings of 3.77 ERA ball (4.28 FIP, 4.81 SIERA). If Clevinger can indeed right the ship, the offseason interest from Milwaukee will be an interesting point to keep in mind, but for now the Brew Crew is surely trying to find more immediate upgrades.

Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel also writes within his latest mailbag that Milwaukee is likely to pursue pitching depth at the deadline. That’s only natural, but Hogg also fields multiple questions on the trade candidacy — or lack thereof — of Willy Adames. Milwaukee’s shortstop is just months from reaching the open market, and the Brewers have in the past been willing to trade from the big league roster in the midst of contending pushes as a means of stockpiling future talent. Their 2022 trade of Josh Hader, in particular, is the most prominent instance of this.

That said, Hogg paints a trade of Adames as unlikely, citing a recent interview with Brewers owner Mark Attanasio wherein he acknowledged that the team has not only received trade offers but compelling ones for Adames in the past — as recently as this offseason. “…[T]here may have been some merit to build for the future,” Attanasio said of the offers received for Adames. The club’s owner also touted Adames as one of the heartbeats of the clubhouse, however. And, as Hogg rightly notes, Adames is a slam-dunk qualifying offer candidate at season’s end — one who’ll surely sign a large enough contract to net the Brewers a comp pick at the end of the first round — if he indeed signs elsewhere.

The previously mentioned injury problems for the Brewers don’t stop in the rotation. Milwaukee has been without outfielder Garrett Mitchell and, even more critically, star closer Devin Williams all season. Young fireballer Abner Uribe took over some of Williams’ closing duties early in the season and had a strong start, tossing 12 1/3 innings with a 3.65 ERA, a 27% strikeout rate and three saves to begin the season. Uribe was torched for five runs in two-thirds of an inning against the Yankees in late April and gave up another run against the Rays three days later before being sent to Nashville to work shaky command that had led to a glaring 18.2% walk rate.

Now, however, Uribe is also on the shelf. He recently sustained a knee injury and was placed on the minor league injured list, general manager Matt Arnold revealed to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. Uribe is slated to undergo an MRI next Tuesday, at which point the club will surely have further updates on his status.

White Sox Open To Offers On Luis Robert, Garrett Crochet

By Steve Adams | June 5, 2024 at 4:15pm CDT

The White Sox are baseball’s worst team by a long shot and seemed to acknowledge that likelihood even before the season began when they traded Dylan Cease to the Padres in spring training. San Diego is already reportedly interested in yet another Sox pitcher, lefty Garrett Crochet, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Sox are open to offers not only on Crochet but on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. Passan categorizes the ChiSox as “open for business” and lists Robert, Crochet, Erick Fedde and virtually all of the team’s short-term veterans as players who could be moved between now and the trade deadline.

Fedde, Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong, Mike Clevinger, John Brebbia, Tim Hill and other players who aren’t signed long-term — Fedde is signed through next season, the others are all free agents this winter — all stood as obvious trade candidates to begin with. I wrote about Fedde’s trade candidacy for MLBTR Front Office subscribers a couple weeks back. DeJong recently said on 670 The Score in Chicago that he and Pham both fully expect to be traded. That anyone from that group is viewed as likely to change hands is only logical.

Names like Robert and Crochet being available is far less certain, even for a rebuilding club like the Sox, given the amount of club control each has remaining. In Robert’s case, he’s signed through the 2027 season in the form of a $12.5MM salary this season, a $15MM salary in 2025 and a pair of club options valued at $20MM apiece (both with a $2MM buyout). Crochet entered the 2024 campaign with three years of big league service, meaning he’s in his first arbitration season and has another pair of seasons of club control beyond 2024.

It bears emphasizing that the Sox being “open” to offers or “willing to trade” either player is far different from the team actively shopping said players. That open-minded approach is also far from a guarantee that either will be moved. The substantial control remaining beyond the current season means Chicago GM Chris Getz will set an enormous asking price on both players, and both will still retain tremendous trade value into the offseason and even into next year’s deadline if a deal doesn’t come together this summer.

Robert, still just 26 years old, returned from the injured list yesterday after an absence of nearly two months. He suffered a Grade 2 strain of his hip flexor early in the season and was sidelined for the bulk of April and the entirety of May. He wasted little time in reminding the type of impact he brings to a game, going 2-for-4 with a homer in his return effort. The Cuban-born five-tool standout has played in only eight games and taken just 33 plate appearances this season but carries a .250/.273/.594 batting line with three homers.

Last year saw Robert take his always tantalizing game to new heights. The dynamic center fielder stayed healthy for a career-high 145 games and posted a stout .264/.315/.542 batting line with a career-high 38 home runs, 36 doubles, a triple and 20 stolen bases (in 24 tries). Robert ranked in the 84th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed, per Statcast, and was among the league leaders in barrel rate. He’s a premium outfield defender with plus range and an above-average arm — evidenced both by gaudy Statcast percentile rankings and by career marks of +13 Defensive Runs Saved and +24 Outs Above Average in 3116 innings of work.

Durability and an over-aggressive approach at the plate are the primary knocks on Robert, who is two months into his fifth MLB season and already has five career IL placements for injury (plus another shorter stay on the Covid-related injured list). Robert played in 56 of 60 games during his rookie showing in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, but he logged just 68 and 98 games in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and he could finish the 2024 season with fewer than 100 games played as well, thanks to one already lengthy absence. He’s now had significant strains of his left and right hip flexors, in addition to an MCL sprain and a wrist strain in his career.

In terms of Robert’s approach at the plate, the results are strong so it’s hard to be too critical. But Robert rarely walks (career 5.3%) and chases pitches off the plate more than nearly any player in the sport. Since his 2020 debut, only Salvador Perez, Harold Ramirez and Javier Baez swing at more balls out of the strike zone than Robert’s massive 46.3% (at least among qualified hitters). His 54.6% contact rate on such swings is well below average, and his career 83.2% contact rate on pitches in the strike zone is also a couple points south of par. It hasn’t led to an exorbitant strikeout rate just yet — Robert has fanned in 25.5% of his career plate appearances — but it’s a less-than-ideal trend that could worsen if Robert loses what Statcast currently measures as elite bat speed (seventh fastest in the majors, on average).

There’s little precedent for a player of this quality with this level of affordability and team control being traded. Robert is owed just under $8MM through season’s end as of this writing plus another $45MM over the next three seasons. Three-and-a-half years of an MVP-caliber talent at a maximum rate of $63MM is a raucous bargain by today’s contractual standards. Teams may be wary of Robert’s injury history and free-swinging ways, but he’s signed for the remainder of his 20s and would be a legitimately franchise-altering deadline acquisition if a team can put together an impressive enough trade offer. Robert might not quite command the type of haul the Padres sent to the Nats for Juan Soto a couple years back, but he’s closer to that level of value than the standard deadline trade candidates. Getz alluded to as much in the offseason, calling Robert “one of the best players in baseball” and noting that he was a “difficult player to trade.”

There are similarities, in terms of trade value, when it comes to Crochet. It’s rare to see a high-end pitcher with two and a half seasons of club control traded at the deadline. Crochet is extra appealing given that his injuries and former role in the bullpen have tamped down his first-year arbitration price. He’s being paid only $800K this season. He’ll be due a pair of notable raises in each of the next two offseasons but still isn’t likely to command even $15MM in salary over those two years.

The 24-year-old Crochet’s transition from reliever to starter hit a brief snag with a trio of rough outings in mid-April, but he’s on an absolute tear right now and looks the part of a frontline starter, as one might expect for a former first-round talent who has long been touted to have ace upside. In 13 starts, Crochet is sitting on a 3.49 earned run average with vastly better fielding-independent marks (2.87 FIP, 2.48 SIERA). That’s due largely to his elite strikeout and walk numbers; Crochet has punched out 33.7% of his opponents against just a 5.4% walk rate — all while keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average 45.9% clip and averaging a blazing 96.9 mph on his heater.

Since that set of consecutive rough outings in April, Crochet has been on another planet. Arguably baseball’s best pitcher in that time, he’s logged a 1.35 ERA with a 53-to-7 K/BB ratio over his past 40 innings. Crochet allowed five, seven and five earned runs in his run of three straight rocky April outings. He’s yielded two or fewer runs in each of his ten other starts this season.

Rival clubs might be wary of how well he’ll hold up over the course of a full season in the rotation. It’s a fair qualm, as Crochet pitched just 25 innings last season and didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. This year’s 69 2/3 innings are already a new career-high for the lefty, who entered 2024 with only 85 1/3 professional innings total (majors and minors combined). That said, even if there are concerns about Crochet fading down the stretch, there’s considerable long-term upside, as one would imagine the effects of a full starter’s workload will be more normalized for him in 2025 and 2026. If he wears down later this year, he’s also quite familiar with pitching in short relief.

Any trepidation about how he’ll hold up this year hasn’t stopped the Padres from reaching out to the White Sox. They’ve reportedly inquired on the lefty and have strong interest in him, which makes sense given not only Crochet’s dominance and San Diego’s need for arms, but also his minimal salary and the Friars’ relative proximity to the luxury tax barrier. Adding one of the game’s most dominant pitchers while barely even advancing your luxury tax line ought to hold overwhelming appeal for the majority of the team’s highest-spending clubs. At the same time, Crochet’s minimal salary also makes him appealing to small-market clubs with payroll concerns. Short of the innings worries, he’s an ideal trade target.

Because of that, the asking price on Crochet figures to be extreme, just as it will be with Robert. If Getz and his team genuinely make both available and play some bidders against one another, the Sox could genuinely overhaul the entire farm system with this pair of trades — to say nothing of deals involving Fedde, Pham and the other previously mentioned veterans. It’s going to take an enormous package of prospects to pry either player from the Sox, but with widespread mediocrity permeating the National League and leaving few teams in position to truly wave the white flag on the 2024 season, it could be a seller’s market. There’s no salvaging this lost season for the South Siders, but getting one or both of these trades right could wildly accelerate their rebuilding efforts.

White Sox Place Mike Clevinger On IL Due To Elbow Inflammation

By Darragh McDonald | May 28, 2024 at 3:30pm CDT

White Sox announced that right-hander Mike Clevinger has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, retroactive to May 25. Fellow righty Jake Woodford has been selected to the roster and will start tonight’s game in Clevinger’s place. Left-hander Sammy Peralta has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Woodford. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to relay the Clevinger and Woodford on X prior to the official announcement.

Since Clevinger is being scratched just hours before his schedule start, it seems fair to conclude that it’s something that popped up recently. He tossed 4 2/3 innings in his most recent start, finishing with 98 pitches thrown that day. He says he has received a cortisone shot and will be shut down for 48 hours, per Van Schouwen on X. The righty expects to return after the 15-day minimum is up.

Clevinger underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020 and hasn’t quite been the same pitcher since. He had a 3.19 ERA in his career before going under the knife but has a 4.20 mark since then. He had a 27.3% strikeout rate prior to the surgery but has punched out just 19.4% of batters faced after.

He lingered in free agency this winter and didn’t land a deal until the Sox signed him in early April to a modest one-year deal with a $3MM guarantee. He went to the minors to build up his workload and was recalled in early May. The Sox were likely hoping for him to stabilized the rotation a bit by eating some innings and perhaps turning himself into a midseason trade candidate. That plan hasn’t worked out so far, as he has a 6.75 ERA through four starts and is now going on the injured list for at least a short spell.

The Sox have traded away many of their starters in recent years as part of their ongoing rebuild, including Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito. This year, some of the guys they have tried have not worked out. Michael Soroka has been moved to the bullpen while Brad Keller was bumped off the roster entirely.

The Sox are left with a rotation core consisting of Garrett Crochet, Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Nick Nastrini. Crochet and Fedde have pitched well but Crochet will likely hit some kind of workload limit eventually, given how little he’s pitched in previous seasons. Fedde is on a two-year deal and will be a trade candidate this summer. Flexen is an impending free agent and would be a logical trade candidate as well, though his 5.69 ERA this year doesn’t give him massive appeal at the moment.

For now, Woodford will step in and make at least one start for the club. The 27-year-old was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason and has been pitching in Triple-A this year. He has logged 49 2/3 innings in his ten starts with a 5.26 ERA, 19.6% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 40.9% ground ball rate.

Prior to this year, he spent his entire career with the Cardinals. He threw 184 2/3 innings over the past four seasons with a 4.29 ERA. His 47.3% ground ball rate in that time was solid but his 15.1% strikeout rate well below par. He exhausted his option years in that stretch with St. Louis and they non-tendered him at the end of last season, which led to his deal with the Sox.

Since he’s out of options, the Sox will have to keep him on the active roster or else remove him from the 40-man entirely. If he manages to last on the roster all year, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration. He came into 2024 with his service time count at three years and 48 days. If the club needs another starter down the line, Jonathan Cannon is on the 40-man but tossed six innings on Sunday. He wouldn’t have been available today but will perhaps get consideration going forward. Chad Kuhl and Touki Toussaint are non-roster options with some major league experience.

Peralta, 26, was just claimed off waivers from the Mariners two days ago. That brought him back to his original organization, as the Sox drafted him back in 2019 but lost him to the M’s off waivers in April of this year.

He made 16 appearances for the Sox last year with a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings. He struck out 20% of batters faced and walked 12.2%. With Triple-A Tacoma this year, he had a 9.24 ERA in 12 2/3 innings. His 20% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate with Tacoma were quite similar to last year’s major league work, but three home runs, a .361 batting average on balls in play and 57.7% strand rate pushed some extra runs across the plate.

The Sox were clearly still intrigued by their old friend and tried to bring him back, but the need for a roster spot nudged him off in short order. They will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one more season as well. In the minor leagues in 2022, he tossed 62 innings with a 3.77 ERA, 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and got grounders on roughly half the balls in play he allowed.

White Sox Recall Mike Clevinger

By Darragh McDonald | May 6, 2024 at 5:30pm CDT

The White Sox announced today that right-hander Mike Clevinger has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. He is starting today’s game against the Rays. Fellow righty Dominic Leone was placed on the 15-day injured list with lower back tightness, retroactive to May 5, in the corresponding move.

Clevinger, 33, is a veteran with over five years of major league service time. That means he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. But he lingered in free agency this winter, not agreeing with the White Sox until early April, and agreed to be sent down to the farm to get properly built up for a starter’s workload.

It was reported last week that the Sox would be shuffling their rotation, with Clevinger and Brad Keller taking roles, though it’s still unclear who will be bumped out. Youngsters Nick Nastrini and Jonathan Cannon had each made multiple starts for the club, but both have been optioned back to the minors in recent weeks. Erick Fedde has had the strongest results so far this year with a 3.46 earned run average. Garrett Crochet’s 5.31 ERA doesn’t look nice but his 32.3% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate are both strong.

Michael Soroka has a 6.48 ERA on the year with uninspiring peripherals to match. His 47.8% ground ball rate is solid but he has walked 12.6% of batters faced while striking out just 10.6%. Chris Flexen also has pretty unremarkable peripherals, including a 13.6% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate, but his 4.85 ERA is at least somewhat passable.

Soroka is still listed on MLB.com as tomorrow’s starter with Flexen the day after. Perhaps they will each get a chance to throw once more before the Sox make a decision, but the club now have six starters to choose from with Clevinger, Keller, Fedde and Crochet also in the mix.

The Sox are 8-26 at this point and clearly won’t be competing this year. Still, the return of Clevinger will hopefully act as a stabilizing force in the rotation as he perhaps sets himself up as a potential trade candidate this summer.

Clevinger was a borderline ace from 2017 to 2020, throwing 489 1/3 innings with a 2.96 ERA, 28% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate. But he required Tommy John surgery after 2020 and hasn’t quite returned to his previous form. He missed 2021 and then had a 4.33 ERA in 2022, with his strikeout rate falling to 18.8%. Last year, he got his strikeout rate up slightly to 20% and dropped his ERA to 3.77, but was still not quite as his pre-surgery levels.

He could have been a trade candidate last summer, since the Sox were also selling at that time, though his health may have played a role there. Right biceps inflammation sent him to the injured list in mid-June and he wasn’t activated until July 27, just before the deadline. He was also later placed on waivers and went unclaimed, though that may have been due to his contract having a $4MM buyout on a mutual option, so any claiming team would have had to absorb that cost. It was also reported in early 2023 that he was the subject of a domestic violence investigation, which could have impacted the interest around the league, though that investigation concluded in March of last year without MLB giving Clevinger any punishment.

This year’s deal is a straight one-year pact with a $3MM base and $3MM of incentives. If Clevinger is healthy and pitching well this summer, the Sox would surely make him available in trades given their ongoing rebuild and poor record.

White Sox Making Changes In Rotation

By Steve Adams | May 1, 2024 at 9:50pm CDT

The 6-25 White Sox are shuffling up their rotation mix a bit. Manager Pedro Grifol told the Sox beat yesterday that right-hander Brad Keller would likely move into the rotation in the near future (X link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com), and he’s now listed as the probable starter Friday. Meanwhile, right-hander Mike Clevinger has made a pair of starts in Triple-A Charlotte since returning on a one-year deal and is likely to join the rotation next week, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Right-hander Erick Fedde has been Chicago’s only above-average starter this season. Lefty Garrett Crochet started brilliantly but has been hit hard of late, ballooning his ERA to just under 6.00. Michael Soroka, Jonathan Cannon, Chris Flexen and Nick Nastrini have all made multiple starts but all came into today with an ERA north of 6.00. Flexen allowed just two earned runs over five innings today, lowering his ERA to 4.85. The Sox have combined for a 5.52 ERA out of the rotation, ranking 29th in the big leagues — ahead of only the Rockies. White Sox starters have averaged an MLB-worst 1.61 homers per nine frames.

Keller, 28, is a longtime division foe for the Sox, having spent his entire big league career prior to this season with the Royals. From 2018-20, Keller emerged as a steadying presence for Kansas City, going from a Rule 5 long reliever to a core member of the rotation. He pitched 360 1/3 frames of 3.50 ERA ball during that stretch, but his career went the opposite direction in three subsequent seasons.

From 2021-23, Keller was tagged for a 5.14 ERA as his command took a noticeable turn for the worse. He was limited to just 45 1/3 innings in 2023, logging a 4.57 ERA but issuing an alarming 45 walks along the way. Keller’s season ended early due to thoracic outlet symptoms. He inked a minor league deal with the ChiSox during the offseason and has made one scoreless relief appearance (1 2/3 innings) in addition to three starts at the Triple-A level, where he turned in a 4.50 ERA in 16 innings and piled up grounders at a huge 62.5% clip.

Clevinger will be entering his second season with the Sox. He started 24 games for the South Siders last year and notched a 3.77 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate and 30.9% ground-ball rate. Despite a solid season on the mound, Clevinger lingered in free agency and ultimately settled on a one-year, $3MM deal to return to the White Sox. He signed late enough that he required the current Triple-A tune-up before joining the big league rotation.

It’s not immediately clear who’ll lose their spot. Nastrini and Cannon have both already been optioned to Triple-A. Soroka and Flexen are veteran stopgaps who are only signed for the current season. Flexen has struggled mightily in the rotation and fared better in a pair of bullpen appearances, but as mentioned, he had a nice performance in today’s series finale against the Twins. Soroka has completed five innings in just three of his seven starts. Crochet’s workload figures to be monitored after he pitched just 24 1/3 frames last year in his return from 2022 Tommy John surgery. He’s never topped 54 1/3 innings in a professional season since being selected in the first round of the 2020 draft.

White Sox Re-Sign Mike Clevinger

By Darragh McDonald | April 4, 2024 at 1:00pm CDT

April 4: The White Sox have formally announced Clevinger’s new contract and confirmed the $3MM base salary. The team also confirmed the previously reported DFA of infielder Jose Rodriguez, which opens a spot on the 40-man roster. Clevinger has agreed to be optioned to the team’s Arizona Complex League affiliate to build up.

April 1, 9:50pm: Clevinger’s deal with the White Sox will pay him $3MM in 2024, with an additional $3MM available in incentives (per Robert Murray of FanSided).

4:55pm: The White Sox and right-hander Mike Clevinger are in agreement on a deal, pending a physical, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The full details of the pact for the ACES client are not yet known, though Jon Heyman of The New York Post relays that it’s a one-year deal.

Clevinger, 33, was one of many free agents to linger on the open market for a very long time, as the offseason turned out to be far slower than anyone had anticipated. He had signed with the White Sox last winter, a one-year deal with a $12MM guarantee. It was later reported that Clevinger was under investigation for domestic violence allegations, though that investigation concluded without the pitcher receiving any discipline.

He went on to have a decent season for the Sox, throwing 131 1/3 innings with a 3.77 earned run average. He went on the injured list twice, the first due to right wrist inflammation and the second due to right biceps inflammation, but still managed to take the ball 24 times.

Though the ERA was nice, there were other numbers that were less impressive. His 20% strikeout rate was below league average and well below the 28% rate Clevinger posted from 2017 to 2020. He underwent Tommy John surgery in November of 2020, missing the entire 2021 season, and hasn’t been quite the same since his return. His velo hasn’t quite come all the way back to pre-surgery levels and he only struck out 18.8% of batters faced in 2022.

In 2023, luck may have helped him keep his ERA low, as his .281 batting average on balls in play and 77.2% strand rate were both on the fortunate side. His 4.28 FIP and 4.81 SIERA suggest he may not have been as effective as the ERA make him look.

Perhaps it was those underlying metrics or maybe it was just a side effect of the generally weak offseason, but Clevinger didn’t find a deal to his liking during the winter and will now be signing after the 2024 campaign has already begun.

The Sox don’t need Clevinger to be an ace, as simply having him eat some innings should be useful to them. They traded away Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn last year as they kicked off a rebuild, then flipped Dylan Cease this winter and moved Michael Kopech into a relief role. Touki Toussaint was outrighted off the roster and Jesse Scholtens required Tommy John surgery. With José Ureña having signed with the Rangers, the Sox came into the 2024 season with every pitcher that made more than three starts for them in 2023 either gone, injured or in the bullpen, prior to Clevinger’s return.

The rotation currently consists of new arrivals. Reliever Garrett Crochet is going in the opposite direction of Kopech, while Michael Soroka was acquired in a trade and Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen were signed as free agents. The club also brought in Jared Shuster, Jake Eder and Jairo Iriarte via trades in the past year, but each has been optioned for work in Triple-A.

That leaves one spot open, which Clevinger will fill at some point. Since he missed all of Spring Training, he will presumably need a bit of tune-up time to get into game shape, even if he’s been building up a pitch count in some unofficial capacity.

Any of their current starters could find themselves available at the trade deadline, which could further open up the need for innings. Soroka and Flexen are both impending free agents while Fedde is controlled through 2025 and Crochet through 2026. With the club’s timeline for a return to contention unclear, there would be an argument for making any of those guys available.

If those players end up getting moved, some of the aforementioned younger pitchers could get an audition but the likelihood of needing someone to take the ball is high, with injuries sure to crop up throughout the year. If Clevinger can find a way to get his strikeouts back, he could pitch himself into a trade scenario as well.

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