The Chicago White Sox just cannot bring themselves to completely part with controversial pitcher Mike Clevinger.
He is officially off the 40-man roster after being designated for assignment on Wednesday.
However, Clevinger will remain a part of the organization after clearing waivers and being outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte.
Clevinger has his defenders, but at some point, even the most ardent supporter has to realize keeping him in the organization is just not worth it.
The main reason is now, after being available on the open market for the fourth time in two years, all 29 other teams rejected adding Clevinger.
Zero surprise that once again not one other team but the White Sox wanted this guy. And of course this team couldn’t just release him. https://t.co/4gWFNz5JR4
— Courtney Finnicum (@courtney883) April 18, 2025
No team wants him in their bullpen after not being able to throw strikes in 2024 and this season. No team wants him on their 40-man roster with the idea of thinking maybe he could be a depth arm in the starting rotation if he can get stretched out.
Other clubs do not want him, and yet the White Sox just cannot bring themselves to fully break away.
His defenders are going to point out that he has always gotten a bad rap. They claim he was falsely accused of domestic violence by the mother of one of his children because he was never charged with a crime, nor did MLB suspend him. They will ignore that Clevinger agreed to counseling after MLB concluded its investigation.
What his defenders likely focus on is an attempt to go after anyone they deem being "woke" rather than face reality. The reality is likely that teams are seeing a pitcher who is rarely healthy and now cannot find the strike zone. That is not bias or being woke, that is just the narrative of his career and the production he has had since 2024.
If he were never destined to always spend time on the injured list, and productive, maybe another team would deal with the public relations headache he still brings.
Cite his 3.2 bWAR 2023 season all you want, but no team bothered to sign him the following offseason. Nor did any team claim him off the type of waivers the Sox put Clevinger on during that season. All a club had to do was assume the rest of his salary, and no team wanted to take on his cost despite his production.
No team bothered to attempt to see if he could be used out of the bullpen this past offseason. Now, no team wants him again.
That is four times the market has rejected Clevinger. At some point, you would expect the White Sox to do the same.
This represents the White Sox still thinking there is value in players that no other team wants. It is a flaw that you would have hoped had been eradicated from the organization after all the front-office upgrades general manager Chris Getz was bragging about in the offseason.
It continues to make this franchise look like a joke. Not like that is hard to do these days, but maybe stopping the self-inflicted wounds could go a long way toward ending the club getting laughed at.
Thinking it cannot hurt to keep a 34-year-old pitcher who has pitched a full season only once in his career around is just not reading the room correctly.
The White Sox have plenty of depth options with big-league experience at Triple-A that can turn to later in the season. They have Danny Altavilla, James Karinchek, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte, Gus Varland, Jared Shuster, and Justin Dunn, who have all pitched big-league innings.
That is plenty of younger options for this organization to finally realize it is not worth keeping Clevinger around in any capacity.