The Chicago White Sox make a terrible decision to bring back Mike Clevinger

The Chicago White Sox did not spend a lot of money in free agency to upgrade a roster that lost 121 games in 2024.

Really, this was not the offseason to do a massive spending spree.

Even if the club had decided to uncharacteristically spend money on big-money free agents, the team would still be projected to lose over 90 games.

What also made sense was to not bring back any of their free agents from last season's historically awful team.

Yet, the White Sox for the second straight offseason are bringing back the worst of them all as they have signed Mike Clevinger to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training.

What this team sees in Clevinger is becoming troubling.

He was a clubhouse cancer in Cleveland. He was accused of domestic violence by the mother of his one children.

Then, he and his agent neglected to tell the White Sox he was being investigated by MLB regarding these allegations. The Sox were only made aware of the allegations only after he signed a one-year $12 million deal in 2023.

He had a statistically strong season in 2023, but still, no other team touched him when he was placed on the type of waivers after the trade deadline where a team can still acquire a player so long as the acquiring club is willing to take on the remaining salary.

No team wanted to pay his remaining salary because despite finishing the season with a 3.77 ERA, he missed time with an injury.

Landing on the injured list is the one thing Clevinger does well outside of creating controversy.

He has started 30 or more games just once in 2018 when he logged 200 innings. Otherwise, he is destined for an IL stint.

The Sox brought him back toward the end of the offseason in 2024 and did not get the same pitcher in 2023.

He appeared to be out of shape and logged four terrible starts where he gave up 12 runs in 16 innings. He ended up needing season-ending surgery and the hope for many among the Sox fan base was he would never be heard from again.

Yet, the Sox are bringing him back for a third season when 29 other big-league teams have passed on him the three times he has been available on the open market.

General manager Chris Getz has been bragging about the front-office updates he has made but has ruined that momentum by continuing the team's trend of pursuing players no other MLB team wants.

Chicago Sun-Times White Sox beat writer reports the Sox are interested in seeing if he can be a reliever.

While there is nothing wrong with grabbing pitchers off the free-agent scrap heap to see if they can revive their career in the pen, Clevinger is coming off of disc replacement surgery in his neck.

The thinking with trying for revival of veteran arms in the bullpen is they can be flipped at the trade deadline for a viable prospect. This is not Penn Murfee we are talking about. Clevinger has proven he has no trade value lately.

This is not 2020 anymore when the San Diego Padres traded for him. He was still 29, and despite being a clubhouse problem, he had still had some promise of being a top starting pitcher.

He is now 34 and is a PR nightmare.

While he was not suspended after being investigated by MLB for domestic violence, he did agree to counseling. Clevinger has denied the allegations, but if he was free and clear like he claimed, then why agree to counseling?

It certainly has not been to the best version of himself as he squirmed doing a 2023 press conference to answer questions about the investigation and then played Gold Digger as his entrance music in an early season game that year.

The last thing the Sox should be doing is still associating with this guy. The fan base is already alienated enough.

Yet, the Sox continue to act like Homer Simpson when he could not stop eating that big sandwich as SoxMachine.com's Jim Margalus has pointed out.