KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chicago White Sox remained in contact with Mike Clevinger after the right-hander declined a mutual option with the team in November.
“He had the right to not pick up his side of the option, look around the league and gauge his own market,” general manager Chris Getz said Thursday in a conference call. “We stayed in touch throughout the offseason.
“It took a little time for us to come to an agreement. There was mutual interest, it just took a couple of months for us to get to the point where the White Sox were the right fit for him.”
The Sox and Clevinger finalized a one-year, $3 million deal Thursday. Reports of his return surfaced Monday.
“I’ve yet to meet anyone in Major League Baseball that is comfortable with their starting pitching and starting pitching depth,” Getz said. “It’s very early in the season and there’s going to be — to keep us in a position to compete throughout the year — having the comfort level of having guys step up and fill innings at a high level, that pushed us toward bringing in arms like a Clev or (Brad) Keller or the others.”
Keller — who signed a minor-league deal in March — is ramping up in Arizona. And Clevinger will head to the Arizona Complex League White Sox to take his next steps.
“We’re definitely thinking big-picture here,” Getz said. “We don’t want to rush anything. Without having him in spring training, we want to appropriately build him up. We’ve got several weeks to do that before he’ll join our major-league club.
“He’s going to Arizona to begin with, get a couple of outings there and then join the Charlotte team to finish up his build toward joining our major-league club.”
That could come in the end of April or early May. Clevinger, 33, went 9-9 with a 3.77 ERA, 110 strikeouts and two complete games in 24 starts last season. He led Sox starters in wins and ERA.
“Every time he took the mound, we felt he put us in a good position to win that ballgame,” Getz said.
White Sox starting pitcher Mike Clevinger reacts after giving up a home run to Rays right fielder Luke Raley on April 30, 2023, at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
After time with Cleveland and San Diego, Clevinger signed a one-year, $12 million deal with the Sox before last season, announced in December 2022. A month later, allegations of domestic violence and child abuse became public in an article by The Athletic. The Sox said they didn’t know of the allegations or the investigation at the time of the signing.
In March 2023, Major League Baseball notified Clevinger that it wouldn’t impose discipline after investigating the allegations.
“I certainly don’t want to be dismissive of events that involve domestic violence by any stretch,” Getz said. “You’ve got to trust the people leading the investigations. Based on the information we have now, we’re very comfortable with having Clev join the White Sox and be part of our major-league club eventually.
“I certainly understand the sensitivity here and I don’t want to be dismissive of that at all. But we wouldn’t be doing this unless we were very comfortable with the situation. And the reason we’re most comfortable is based on the investigation that have taken place beyond the Chicago White Sox.”
He will return to a new-look rotation in Garrett Crochet, Michael Soroka, Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen. The Sox haven’t had to use a fifth starter yet because of days off in the schedule and Wednesday’s postponement against the Braves.
“At some point, we will have a fifth starter and we’ve got some candidates to fill that role,” Getz said.
The Sox would like to get Keller to the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., soon.
“We want him to be a starting pitcher candidate for us, and for anyone that’s going to be joining our major-league club, we like to know we are going to get a starter who can cover us at least five-plus, in that five-to-seven-inning marker,” Getz said. “We are determined to kind of work toward that first before we factor him into any sort of major-league discussion.”
Nick Nastrini, who had 3.77 ERA in five Cactus League outings (three starts), dealt with a recent illness.
“He’s on the mend, he’s starting to feel good,” Getz said. “It was nice to have him get the start last night (for Charlotte). Yeah, his stuff was a little down, which is very much expected based on the amount of work he was able to get in in between when he got sick and his start.
“He battled through and he’s a guy that we are certainly very excited about. Still showed plenty of signs of future success at the major-league level last night. We just want to build him up appropriately and put him in a good position for success, whether it be in Charlotte or with our major-league club.”
In Thursday’s corresponding 40-man roster move to the Clevinger signing, the Sox designated José Rodríguez for assignment. The infielder combined to slash .262/.292/.437 with 21 home runs and 62 RBIs in 106 games last season with Double-A Birmingham and Charlotte.
