USA Today’s Bob Nightengale passed along Sunday morning that right-hander Mike Clevinger is seeking a one-year contract according to Clevinger’s agent, Seth Levinson of ACES.
The news regarding Clevinger’s market sets up a contrast between the veteran right-hander and the other free-agent starting pitchers still available. Top-of-the-market southpaws Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are both seeking pricey multi-year contracts, with the latest reporting on Snell indicating that the lefty is seeking an opt-out laden two- or three-year guarantee with an AAV in the $30M range, while Montgomery was rumored to be angling for a seven-year pact earlier this month. Even righty Michael Lorenzen, the other mid-market pitcher still available, is reportedly seeking a two-year deal, with recent reports indicating that the 32-year-old has turned down one-year offers in the $5-7M range.
While it’s not clear where Clevinger’s salary expectations are as things stand, it’s nonetheless easy to see the 33-year-old’s willingness to accept a one-year deal making the right-hander a more attractive option for clubs looking to bolster their pitching depth with less than two weeks remaining until Opening Day. The dwindling time to find a new home before the season begins is perhaps even more significant for Clevinger than it is for other players left on the market, as the veteran has not been publicly connected to any of MLB’s 30 clubs since hitting free agency back in November.
Despite that lack of public interest, the veteran was clearly among the more interesting mid-to-back of the rotation options available this winter, even as free agency was just getting started. While Clevinger can hardly be expected to replicate the early-career dominance he enjoyed in Cleveland that saw him compare favorably to front-of-the-rotation arms such as Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer, a strong platform campaign with the White Sox last year saw Clevinger flash mid-rotation results. Despite being limited to just 131 1/3 innings by a right wrist injury, the veteran posted a solid 3.77 ERA with a 4.28 FIP in Chicago last season, with even stronger results after returning from the injury in late July. Over his final 12 starts last year, Clevinger pitched to a 3.67 ERA with a nearly-matching 3.75 FIP.
That solid mid-rotation performance comes with some questionable peripherals, however. While Clevinger’s velocity returned in his second season back from Tommy John surgery last year as he average 94.6 mph with his heater, he struck out just 20% of batters faced while generating grounders at a career-worst 30.9% clip. Clevinger’s below-average strikeout and groundball rates are a far cry from his peak years in Cleveland, when he struck out 28.3% of batters faced to go along with a 40.3% grounder rate. Even with those diminished peripherals, however, Clevinger figured to be an excellent option for a club looking to bolster the back of its rotation this winter.
Of course, that hasn’t panned out to this point as Clevinger remains on the market, but a rash of pitching injuries around the game could perhaps open the door for Clevinger to latch on with a club in need of starting depth entering the season. The Red Sox, Astros, Marlins, Yankees and Giants have all faced unexpected injuries in the rotation throughout the spring and Clevinger could be a cost-effective insurance policy for any of those clubs if they wish to bolster their rotation in light of those injuries. While the veteran right-hander can’t be expected to replace the production of a front-of-the-rotation arm such as Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander or Eury Perez, his ability to offer stability to the middle or back of a club’s rotation could help raise the floor for a rotation-needy club ahead of Opening Day. What’s more, his apparent desire for a straight one-year pact provides flexibility that could be particularly attractive to clubs such as the Astros or Marlins that figure to have plenty of rotation depth in the long-term but are currently struggling with multiple injuries.
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