The Padres announced that right-hander Mike Clevinger will undergo Tommy John surgery. He’ll miss the entire 2021 season as a result.
This is stunning news, though it won’t bring an end to Clevinger’s run with the Padres. The team announced that the two-year deal it was working on with Clevinger last week is now official, so he will remain with the organization for his final pair of seasons of club control. Clevinger will earn $11.5MM on the pact, Joel Sherman of the New York Post was among those to report. Unsurprisingly, it’s a backloaded agreement that will see Clevinger take home a $2MM salary in 2021 and $6.5MM in 2022, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. He also received a $3MM signing bonus. Clevinger will earn $250K in incentives if he starts five games in ’22 and another $250K if he starts 10, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.
Now 29 years old, Clevinger has been one of the majors’ most effective starters since he broke out in Cleveland in 2017. But the Indians decided to part with Clevinger this past August when they sent him to the Padres in a mega-deal before the trade deadline. Clevinger then helped the Padres to their first playoff berth since 2006, throwing 19 innings of six-run ball with 9.0 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9, though he battled elbow issues in his brief debut with the club. He only threw one playoff inning, which came in a start against the Dodgers in the NLDS, before departing.
Little did the Padres know that Clevinger’s most recent outing on Oct. 6 would be his last until at least the start of the 2022 season. Until now, it seemed safe to assume Clevinger would rejoin Dinelson Lamet and Zach Davies near the top of the Padres’ rotation next year. In light of this news, though, it’s unclear how the Padres will fill out their starting five beyond Lamet, Davies and Chris Paddack. There are some in-house possibilities in MacKenzie Gore, Luis Patino, Adrian Morejon, Joey Lucchesi and Ryan Weathers. Otherwise, the Padres could turn to the free-agent market or look to acquire help via trade. Either way, losing Clevinger for all of next year looks like a devastating blow for the up-and-coming San Diego franchise.
Wow
Nothing like signing a contract and giving the team the middle finger once the ink dries. Crazy!
I don’t think they’re surprised by the diagnosis.
You don’t announce a deal and have a guy under the knife 16 hours later without knowing. Teams approve specialist visits and such or deals can be voided.
At $11m plus incentives for 2 arb years that’s already a low contract for a guy like clevinger.
The TJ was built it the price/terms.
@GASoxFan 11m might be low for a healthy Clev, but he’s so not. The reality is that the $11m is for one year, and that a year coming off tj. No way he makes that in arb while on the IL.
This is the odd situation where Clevinger would’ve probably made less money if he’d been a free agent. Since these were arbitration years, the Padres were going to have to pay him for both years unless they non-tendered him. And arbitration salaries can’t go down. So the choice was either work out a contract like this or make themselves look like total idiots by non-tendering the ace they just traded for.
The Indians certainly come out looking like geniuses, though.
Any contract during arbitration is not guaranteed. Padres can cut their losses at any time.
Any contract during arbitration is not guaranteed. Padres can cut their losses at any time.
Just to be clear, Koamalu, Clevinger is no longer in an arbitration deal. They *could* have cut their losses before this deal, now they guaranteed him 11m and they could cut him tomorrow. Clev still gets his money now
Komalu, that’s not true. Players on arbitration can only be released before the 16th day of spring training if the team doesn’t want the salary to become guaranteed. Otherwise, they can only non-tender at the end of the season. And, as Laughing@You said, this 2 year contract is now guaranteed since they signed it.
This is his SECOND TJ. Believe it or not, that’s important.
Looks like the team knew this was coming based on how the deal is structured. Padres should still get a year of Clevinger if the rehab goes as planned and they get some certainty on his salary. This deal works for both sides.
They definitely knew before hand…
Seeing as his salary for 2021 is only $2M and 2022 is $6.5M — they obviously knew about the surgery before signing. It’s essentially one of those deals guys recovering from TJ sign where the first year is for low $ while they recover and the second is the actual contract. Just in his case — he gets a bit more this year because he was still arb eligible — so the Padres options would have been to non-tender him and this lose his control or do what they did. So obviously they feel highly enough about him that losing his final season of control (after the 1 spent recovering from TJ) wasn’t worth the $ savings.
Do you really think the Padres loaded the contract that way thinking he was pitching in 2021?
You do realize a physical would be required before the contract was signed.
That’s not how the Padres roll. They were told by Clevenger,s agent… if you wanna know what’s in the package, you gotta buy it first.
Stfu. There’s no reason to bring politics in here.
And the Indians win the trade
And yet, if clevinger comes back in 2022 and wins a Cy young would you still say that?
Or if clevinger really likes whatever support and rehab he gets in SD, enjoys the city and atmosphere, and signs long term? What then? What if clevinger goes on to be a #1 caliber SP for years to come, all because he got a taste of the city/org from the trade?
What if he gets flipped for an OK but unspectacular newly drafted 4th round prospect at the deadline and that guy is the next mkokie betts?
Until you can look back at the end of his SD tenure this counts for nothing.
He gonna win the NL Cy Young and throw first Padres no hitter vs the Indians
A lot of if’s. Cleveland won.
Far too early to claim that. You have to look at what Cleveland got in exchange.
It’s a small sample size, but Clevinger produced 0.5 WAR in his short time with the Padres. All of the players Cleveland acquired have so far combined for negative WAR.
Until those players actually start producing results for the Indians, there is no objective reason to say that the Indians won the trade.
Just because players are available and have a pulse doesn’t mean they’re helping the team win games.
I’m not saying it’s some huge win for CLE like datrain021 is implying… but given that hes having TJ and will already be 31 when he returns to the mound — I’ve also got to say, in all fairness, your “what ifs” are also a bit out there. I mean sure there are some SPs that can be a #1 caliber ‘ace’ well into their mid-30s but they tend to be outliers not the norm. So at this point the best case – likely – scenario is Clevenger comes back at full health and could be a front line SP for a few years (if he does wind up liking SD and resigning) but even in that scenario it’s not like they’re getting him for free… So yeah maybe he loves it an signs long term… but I don’t really think any of that will make this trade not a ‘win’ for Cleveland. They had excess SP to start with and cashed it in for a big haul (quantity wise anyway) of young players. Now on top of that Clevenger has TJ… So I’d say it’s fair to assume this as a win for CLE — even if he’s somehow traded for the next Mookie Betts (seems incredibly unlikely seeing as he won’t even play again until 2022 — at which point why would they trade him after waiting a full year for him to rehab?) But I do understand your general point… just not sure it totally applies here.
I cant remember a guy having Tommy John and coming back in the second year and having great command or doing exceptionally well. Anyone have a good example of a successful year back from TJ in the recent years?
Plenty of pitchers came back from tommy John… namely Tommy John.
Brent Suter had TJ in 2018. He returned to the Brewers in 2019 (albeit in limited action) and went 4-0 with a 0.49 ERA.
Dinelson Limet is one example. He looked better last year than he did before surgery. Though he was even better this year.
Not to be cynical, but it complicates matters significantly now that we’re discussing a SP having TJ #2. Now the success rate for that is not the same. So even though you were being factious, the better question is how many SPs have come back and been effective following their second TJ surgery. There aren’t very many in general, but as a baseball fan you hope.
Its Clevinger’s 2nd Tommy John surgery. No pitcher has come back and pitched to his career numbers after the 2nd one. Not sure why the Padres would have signed him to anything approaching this contract.
Very recent, thanks.
Hate to use this example, but Matt Harvey was outstanding in 2015 after missing ’14 for TJS.
Because – Preller. He hasn’t got a clue at finding ML pitching talent, building an ML staff, or managing an ML staff. And we expect to win?
Besides that, just look at what they did with Garrett Richards.
@debubba … the better question is how many pitchers have been successful after their SECOND Tommy John.
And the answer to that is not too freakin’ many.
Caveat – I’m still ticked off at how the Padres mis-managed Garrett Richards. He was showing signs of becoming his former self.
Ah, the fallacy that if a guy re signs it means the trade is better
I agree that you can’t look into the future. So today, as it stands, the Indians win the trade.
When is q player great the first year back.
And, the slim pickins at the top end of the SP market just got tighter!
They should resign Garrett Richards. But I don’t think that’ll happen because of how they used him.
The trade was made with intentions to stack up the pitching staff for the 2020 postseason and the following seasons. The Indians didn’t “win” the trade nor did the Padres “lose” the trade, as both teams made the trade for specific reasons.
Padres wanted a established pitcher with good value in terms of performance as they were lacking in that regard. They have plenty of great pitching prospects and decent frontline starters, but not any pitcher that could come close to the mold of “ace”. Mike Clevinger can certainly be defined as the Padres No.1 starter and it seems that Preller and Co. are of the same mind regardless of his 2021 absence. It might be objectively risky, but it’s a bet they were willing to make. You don’t make a trade like they did and expect the return to be less.
Indians have a loaded rotation so the trade made perfect sense for them. However, it should be noted that the main haul for the Tribe is prospects. These types of players will remain lottery tickets until they display their respective values; both good and bad. Naylor is still working on getting out of quadruple A limbo while Hedges is a insurance piece for Roberto Perez. Only Quantrill has returned any solid value but even that came in only his second year in the bigs.
One can argue that the Indians “won” the trade, but until the ink dries on the paper I see no “winners” or “losers”. All I see is that it’s going to take multiple seasons before I see any concrete results for this matter.
Clev’s agent is like… Sign the contract! Do it! Do it!
It doesn’t cover free agent years.
I know. He would still be making more money if he signed it though.
Better now and at least have a strong 2022 (if there is one) than wait till partway through the year and be ineffective through both.
1 strong year lucky if he’s healthy then traded at deadline. Preller is a joke of a GM
Is it just me, or, does preller’s FO appear have a serious problem vetting pitching talent in trades?
It just feels like SO many guys he brings in end up with TJ issues, even prospects (looking at BOS trades here too).
Are the guys coming in with issues, is there something different about SD strength/conditioning/training regimen changes that guys make quick transitions from what happens in other clubs and hurt themselves?
It’s it just cursed luck?
Bad front office all the way down thru manager. What manager gets kicked out of a playoff game for arguing balls and strikes.. Just another dumb thing to do by a manager.
Man, I dunno.
I’m not a Padres fan so I don’t recall all of the moves he’s made over the years.
But as an outsider it looks like he did the tank/rebuild thing damn near perfect.
Karma.
Seriously dude? Clevinger is great guy, and a stud of a pitcher. If anyone gets karma it’s the cheaters on Houston.
Yea… I mean he only had a guy on his team that just recovered from cancer treatment and decided to break protocls and go out of the hotel possibly putting his teammates at risk. He’s a great guy……
Ding ding! you win sir. Great guy? He is an idiot.
Did he do something very stupid?
Yeah, for sure!
Does that mean he “deserves” Tommy John surgery? Gosh, I’d say certainly not.
I mean, are you hoping that Justin Turner needs ACL surgery, too?
if you are referring to me, of course I am not. don’t want to see anyone get hurt. But he ain’t a great guy.
Who hasn’t broken protocol at this point. Covid is going on forever
Maybe the medicals weren’t accurate
Shame. I enjoy watching him pitch. His style is fun to watch. Get well soon.
So that massive hall they had to give up to get this guy was pretty much all for nothing.
Luckily for them they gave up more of a quantity over quality package.
Two 1st round draft picks. Quantrill and Naylor both were good as Indians. Naylor was lights out in the playoffs. 3 other prospects in the Padres top 30. That one trade raised the Indians 5 places in team prospect rankings.
Regardless of what Clevinger did for the Padres, the Indians won that one.
Again, I think it’s more quantity over quality. I think Quantrill will be good but nowhere near as good as Clevinger, and they’ll be lucky to get two regulars out of the three prospects. Naylor having two good games in the playoffs doesn’t mean anything.
Cleveland is also magical with pitchers. It’s possible that Quantrill reaches levels in Cleveland that he never could have in SD.
So was the haul.
I have never been more disappointed in reading news like this. Such a shame. They traded 6 players for what 6 starts and then he has at the very least a year away for rehab
Well the trade with the Indians seems to be looking worse and worse for the Padres. I have a feeling this is gonna end up like the Chris Archer trade where Clevinger has bad results while Naylor and others start showing some nice production.
The players they gave up aren’t even in the same stratosphere as Meadows/Glasnow.
True, but Naylor has the potential to become somewhat like Meadows. He set a postseason record in the WC, but that was just 3 games so who knows.
Meadows’ prospect rankings peaked when he was in the top 10. Naylor only ever appeared on one top 100 list, at #99 by just Baseball America.
This means? Nothing. Rankings don’t make a player.
Rankings mean a lot. Rankings are based on many things like tools, abiity and stats. If you are barely in the top 100, then you don’t have the same tools ability or stats as someone who’s ranked as high as #6 on some lists.
Flip side: rankings only go so far.
They don’t give enough weight to where a prospect is within the pipeline.
Take two CFs.
One is in AAA, hitting .290, has OK HR power, and gets an assist here or there with decent reads and speed.
Second is in summer ball, hasn’t developed his tools yet but “projects” that he MIGHT grow into someone who mashes, strikes out a ton but has power when he can hit off 18yr olds.
The second guy can be a top 30 mlb prospect while the first guy is stuck just barely inside the top 100.
But who is better?
If prospect hype was gold the guys like swihart… refsnyder…. peraza… – the list is endless really – would be perennial all stars right now.
players evolve if you will, at different rates. While we agree it has some value, we have seen HUNDREDS of players outplay/fail regardless of their rankings.
I don’t know about that one. Arias could very well end up being better than both Meadows and Glasnow. Quantrill is far better than Clevinger was at this stage is his career. He looked like a viable mid rotation guy last year for the Tribe. Meadows and Glasnow were looking like disappointments in PIT before the Archer deal. They both still have major durability concerns.
wow that sucks a lot. maybe they will be in on Bauer.
Cleveland knew something was up but didn’t tell San Diego. Talk about karma.
Lol trust me the padres didn’t tell the Indians “something” about Logan Allen, Franmil Reyes, Josh naylor, Austin hedges, and more the past few years. Clevinger missing a season is not the end of the world for this franchise
Stop. SD looked at medical records and made there own decision.
The Indians are getting gold painted statues or wait it’s just gold plastic participation trophies thanks for playing.. Preller’s proven to be one of the smartest talent evaluators out there with the balls to make wild moves that work out. If we don’t get clevinger until postseason 2021, or even if we don’t get him until we have a super healthy $7M #2-3 starter in 2022, we’ll still have more than anything the Indians come up with lolll.
Absolutely not. Clevenger has had one year in his entire career where he has pitched over 200 innings. The Padres had to know this coming into the trade.
Everyone that has watched Clevinger’s mechanics and injury history saw this one coming. Clev might be an effective reliever when he comes back but he’ll never stay healthy starting every fifth day.
TL:DR His wild, violent, explosive pitching style that a lot of people love to watch always bothered me because I saw this coming. He was brutalizing his elbow and just had very poor form, even if he powered through and has a lot of raw talent.
No wonder that 2-year extension didn’t get finalized. Its been obvious for over a year now that he’d need TJ surgery. Also if you look at his delivery style- it always bothered me the way he’d have to pop off the mound and catch himself after every single pitch. It always felt kinda show-y and unnecessary. To each their own, but you gotta wonder if his delivery style is partially for theatrics and also what led to requiring TJ surgery.
Clevinger seems like one of those guys who will always have no. 1 starter potential, but he will never quite live up to it because of his delivery style- and it is style. It doesn’t feel necessary for his pitches to be effective- it will hold him back and prevent him from avoiding serious injury or IL stints..
The two year contract did get finalized. Kinda undernoted in the post
Whoops! My reading eye normally catches the terms of the contract and notes that first. I guess we never heard dollar figures? Do we know what they were? I am guessing the Padres and Clevinger knew this TJ surgery was happening so he got a token 1 year pay reduction for 2021 and then goes back to something modest in 2022 on the assumption he’s all healed and ready to go? Something like 2 years/$7M with 2021 being $1M and 2022 being $6M?
$3M signing bonus, $2M in 2021, $6M in 2022 plus incentives.
How petty is everyone making karma comments.
You never make mistakes? Clev and Preller both have paid for their mistakes and have moved on. Why don’t you? The world has enough crap going on without people acting like they deserve this or had this coming.
I fully expect everyone to disagree with me, so go ahead
Preller has paid for mistakes? He’s still employed no he hasn’t
Exactly, Preller is a bad GM who tried to pull a fast one with medical records. He should have been banned for a year at least. And yes Padre fans I know he traded for Tatis
He was suspended and paid his time. Not his fault that his penalty was not to your liking.
Yeah, he brought big name players to SD and we made the playoffs for the first time in a long time. yeah, I’ll keep him.
After years of tanking and his first attempt at it failing miserably. What big name did he bring in besides Machado? Eric “average 1b on a 140 million dollar contract” Hosmer?
I don’t know if you heard of the man myth legend that is Fernando Tatis Jr?
Ah yes because we all knew the 17 year old kid who had yet to play a pro game was going to be that good. He wasn’t a big name at the time. Tatis was a great acquisition too bad Max Fried and Trea Turner alone wash out that acquisition.
I’ll give you the poor trades for turner and fried. But I don’t get why people write off preller for acquiring Tatis. People will give the white Sox crap for giving up on him but you can’t give credit to Preller for getting him? It doesn’t matter if he was only 17 and unknown. The padres did their homework and identified him as someone worth having. They get credit for that
The Padres blew their international budget out of the water that period. If they really wanted Tatis they would have signed him themselves. It was a lucky accident. I give him credit for it but that’s not enough for 6 years.
Lol tripping into a 17 year old who hadn’t played stateside yet makes Preller a legend? Interesting
The Preller haters will all say that his mistakes are on him and his success was lucked into.
Would you say the angels lucked into trout because 25 teams passed on him or the were smart for not passing on him? The point was that Preller made the deal for Tatis, not another team.
We disagree and we can move on.
Hahaha. You realize he was likely given a list of random 17 year old IFAs and he picked Tatis because… he recognized the last name?.. or he was a short stop? Or he was tall?
He likely “scouted“ him off his freakin baseball card height and weight
You claiming he’s a good GM because of that randomness is why everyone else laughs when he makes stupid trades
All gms luck into guys. It’s okay to admit it
The whole idea is silly. You get judged on your body of work. You don’t get to claim you were lucky or unlucky.
@PetersDylan – The flaw is that we don’t know that preller set out to acquire Tatis and asked, what does it take to get the kid?
More likely, Tatis came back off a list of expendable pieces that was chosen from, if not a case where he was suggested by the white sox and preller only acquiesced by saying ok, good enough.
Without being there we just don’t know. But given it was a 17 yr old yet to swing a bat here, and that SD had both the money and opportunity to sign him themselves as an intl FA – and didn’t – we have to presume he hadn’t ranked particularly high on their radar at the time.
It’s really not. GMs get lucky. Max Muncy was not expected to put up 35 HR seasons in 2 straight and maintain that pace for a 3rd year when he signed in LA… But he did
You’re that sensitive about Preller you can’t admit he can get lucky?
I can admit that people get lucky but what’s wrong in your logic is you are saying all of his losing in trades and free agency are because he is bad at his job but you can’t give credit to him for making a great trade.
At the end of the day, he traded an old, crappy, expensive James Shields to the White Sox for Tatis jr
LOL… :We made the playoffs!” More than half the teams in MLB made the playoffs thanks to Manfred’s turning MLB into a NBA clone.
Would it be better to say the padres had the third best record in all of baseball?
I never said he didn’t win the trade. Of freakin course he did
But it’s not like he KNEW Tatis was going to become Tatis. Let’s be honest, he picked from a list of 17 and 18 year olds who hadn’t been stateside yet
If you want to jump up and down and cheer for him, go for it. Most reasonable fans call that hitting on a lottery pick. Are lottery winners good, or lucky?
Otherwise he’s had multiple big trades end in injuries coming over, or subpar performance compared to prior team in trade. Multiple big contracts that a year ago looked ugly and now are “only” highly questionable. He has emptied a large portion of the middle of your farm, which is not a good long term plan to be able to continue to make high impact trades.
Preller finally got to spend money and suddenly the padres are better. Give any team multiple hundred million dollar players and they should improve. We’ll see in 5 years how Preller’s moves navigating the 40 and such plays out. But his history isn’t good there either so… let’s say I’m quite pleased with Friedman over Preller as a Dodger fan
Does it matter any more?
The padres had historically streaky hitters be only hot in 2020, with a season 1/3 the length. If you expect that to hold over 162, you’re going to have a rough 2021
1 trade in 7 years hundred bad ones
He’s been suspended twice by MLB
I said this last week they did the same with Garrett Richards. If anything this team just enjoys stockpiling and doesn’t care how much money they spend. Hurts to see though.
It literally says the two year deal is now official.
This is case in point where every trade has its own risks. Especially when looking for an “Ace” via trade where it costs a ton of “capital” that I’m glad the Braves held their own and gamble on reclamation projects. This trade, Chris Archer, and others (sorry brain not totally functional due to me being in the middle of rewiring my house) just goes to show it’s “cheaper” to just build from within and sign stop gap FA’s on shorter terms till a team finds the prospect that works. Yeah there are growing pains as “prospects” are just that, prospects. Latest example, Ian Anderson for the Braves looks the part while others on same team with high draft pedigree Kyle Wright, Bryce Wilson have some seasoning to go. It cost the Braves nothing to build these guys up while just those other 2 trades I stated cost a ton with the return, as of now, not what was paid for.
Oh no. At least the prospects we sent to Cleveland were all blocked on the Padres roster, so this won’t turn out to be a horrible trade.
I think Cal Quantrill is going to be the part of this trade we look back on and wince at. He looked really good last year and he’s not FA eligible until 2026.
Aside from that, it was more quantity than quality but its still not looking like a great trade in light of the injury.
I like Quantrill, but I see him more as a bottom of the rotation type guy. I think the Padres have enough of those types of pitchers that they can afford to trade him away.
Like Quantrill a lot good point reminds me of Kevin Appier
Would have been nice to trade them for someone whose arm wasn’t about to fall off..
I love this team. Love the organization. Im a die hard Padres fan and still give kudos to Preller and ownership for trying.
You win some you lose some but you never stop trying.
The Padres will get it right at some point.
Of course u do 7 years of bad trades is Padre fan dream
@towinagain I thought you said he wasn’t gonna have tommy john?
Thats the spirit! Maybe Preller moving another 15 more players in a trade spree will get it done. 3rd time is the charm.
3rd time he’s blunder city for 7 years
Shame. It seems like if you get a TJ in late teens, early 20s, you’re about a decade away from your next one.
The human body isn’t meant to throw a baseball as hard and as many times as pitchers do. Especially nowadays, when children and teenagers are playing 2-3 seasons worth of games in a single year, there’s no time to rest.
Get your velocity as close to triple digits as possible and accept that you’ll miss a year at some point along the way.
Yep max effort, all the time.
Where’s the Padre fans who told me I was a cynical person, praying for an injury, for pointing out this fact… 5 months ago?
Based on the likelihood of reduced payroll and uncertainties of the 2021 season due to Covid (not to mention the possibility of an economic recession), I have to think the Padres will mostly be looking in-house to fill the void. What do others think?
Well, it seems pretty clear that we cannot overtake the Dodgers with in-house prospects. I think we go outside the organization and make another big signing.
Yeah I agree. I think their starting rotation for next year will be Lamet, Davies, Gore, Paddack, and Morejon with Patino being a long reliever/injury replacement. I would like to see them bring back Richards though. I liked him a lot last year.
I think they need to go external to get another arm otherwise they’re going to have to lean heavily on Gore/Patino/Morejon and I don’t think they’re ready to slot 2+ of those guys into the rotation in full time roles from the get go.
Right now its basically 1. Lamet, 2. Davies, 3. Paddack and then 4/5 would be some combination of the rookies mentioned above.
If I were in that situation I would want to bring in a veteran like Cole Hamels or Cory Kluber on a one year “prove it” kind of deal to cover some of those innings and take some of the pressure off the rookies.
I cringe every time somebody includes Paddack in our starting line up. The guy got shelled. He needs more seasoning before he becomes a shoe in.
Paddack and Davies are a 4 at best, they both suck and got shelled in playoffs.
Paddack is “incredible”
Cole Hamels before Kluber. We need some lefties in our rotation.
Yeah I’d love to see the Padres go external and bring in a top notch pitcher. However, given the COVID situation, I don’t think the Padres will have enough money to sign an elite pitcher.
Great trade … for the Indians!
Not a Padres fan but this is disappointing. He seems like a good dude and fun to watch. Plus he has great takes on the cheating trashstros. Wish more guys would tell it how it is like him and Bauer.
When are teams gonna stop trading with the Indians?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I wondered why Cleveland seemed so intent on moving him with two more years left of control when they could’ve used a healthy Clevinger down the stretch without losing too much leverage had they waited to deal him this offseason.
I also thought it a bit odd that more teams couldn’t beat the winning offer considering it definitely fell in the quantity-over-quality basket.
His delivery is too violent
His hair is offensive!
More to do with his off-field antics then ability. Rumor was many Indians had enough of his ‘quirks’ then the Covid fiasco, sealed his fate.
Agreed, he put thousands of people at risk of COVID-19 — all of his teammates, and then everybody they come in contact with, and then everybody they come in contact with; with a fatality rate of 0.5% of so, he may be indirectly responsible for more than one death. If we have to use the logic to protect others when we wear face coverings (which I agree with wearing), then the same applies to Clev.
Oh, well aren’t you the good little virtue signaler? How many people have you killed today? Good gawd. Friggin’ absurd.
Did the same thing with kluber. The Indians know the right time to trade
In general id agree it’s a red flag, but Cleveland has been trading expensive pitchers away for years. Either you sign a cheap deal, or you’re dealt
With a year left, sure that makes sense. But they were in it this year. Assuming health, I would think the package they got was available this winter. I’m not saying they’re wrong, it just seemed odd at the time no one stopped and questioned why a World Series hopeful was so eager to move a great pitcher.
It’s sad to see there are some people here who think that Clevinger and his agent put one over on the Padres, as though this wasn’t the impetus for the two-year deal, entered into with both sides knowing the surgery was immanent. Come on, people! You are smarter than that, and the comments make no sense as trolling.
I was pretty confident in his health when I saw the report of a 2 year deal being on the table, because I couldn’t understand why they would guarantee the second year if there was any doubt about his health. Turns out I was dead wrong.
That being said, the fact they agreed on $11.5M for 2 years is confirmation that they worked hand in hand on this deal knowing that he needed TJ. $11.5 for 2 years (with deferred money) wouldn’t have made sense unless he was missing time. He was theoretically going to get ~$5M through arb this time and then if he pitched in 2021 a raise to like ~8-10M for that last year. It wouldn’t make sense to shortchange yourself like that and backload the deal unless you knew something was up.
I loved Clevinger’s response to the Astros cheating scandal.
https://youtu.be/JCbQhKVNYkU
Maybe it was a bad idea to have him pitch with his elbow hanging on by a thread.
@javia @marvelsmagaman where are you guys? Remember when it was said he was going to have tommy john? Lamet next?
I assume the Padres knew Mike Clevinger needed Tommy John surgery,
if they didn’t know, the Padres should let the Clevinger team and the Players Union take the Padres and MLB to court and try to get paid. No honest judge or appeals judge would take the players side.
And just as soon as he’s ready to be good again (yeah I know he will be back pitching in 2022, but it takes a year more sometimes to get fully back), he will be a FA. The least he could have done is give them one year of his free agency.
Absolutely not. What does he owe the Padres?This is a wear and tear injury that has happened to at least 35% of pitchers in the majors at some point in their careers
Considering the 2nd year out of TJ surgery isn’t optimal, why didn’t the Padres get a 3rd year option?
Because of his character issues and lack of empathy putting his teammates (and everybody they come in contact with) at risk of COVID-19.
Can’t help but wonder if that 1 inning in the NLDS cost him? He was hurt before that, but probably pushed it further into a tear.
$11.5MM for 1 year sight unseen of a pitcher coming off TJ surgery. This from a team that is thought to have fiscal limitations. SMH.
They can’t non-tender him since they traded all those prospects for him
So pqy 11.5 million to pitch 80 innings with q 5 era in 2022?
This is a carbon copy of the Garret Richards deal, the logic of which escaped me two years ago and still does today. Sign an injured pitcher to a two year deal knowing that the first year is a total loss. Year #2 turns out okay for both the club and the player, but now Richards is probably gone.
Wonder how the Padres look at this off season. Can’t imagine they’ll go big on Bauer but Tanaka or some trade acquisitions could be interesting.
What dumb luck… but nothing beats the severino deal.
The Padres 2021 season is over before it even started. At least they still have Machado lollll
Keep in mind Clevinger was in the Angels system, so this news is of no surprise.
And he already had TJ #1 while in the Angels system.
This is TJ #2 for him…
Which means assuming he comes back the exact same pitcher is risky at best
Rumor is… they are switching names and now calling it mike clevenger surgery.
That’s a silly deal, that’s like getting with a hooker and hoping she won’t cheat. Why would you give up your prospects for a guy with a high risk injury. Why not trade for Syndergaard instead? Lol you never see the Dodgers make these silly moves
That’s because the Dodgers are an all around well oiled machine. They rarely miss on acquisitions and know how to add a cast off and turn them into a stud. Always in the top 10 in the league when in comes to a farm system and good at developing their prospects all while having money to spend but not spending it just for the sake of making an acquisition or just because they can. Before you say I’m a Dodgers homer I’m not (braves fan). But you do gotta recognize and respect a well run franchise.
The way you put it it’s astounding they went 32 years without a WS victory.
They didn’t have this FO for the last 32 years
Look at Darvish, it takes a while to get the full strength back even after 12 to 18 month, meaning he’s likely to be in full shape when this two-year contract is up.
This is stunning news,
————————————————————–
It is especially not stunniing. Not even surprising.
When he left Cleveland, he had already lost his ability to throw strikes, moved from 4.57 K/W to 1.91. Whenever you acquire an ace, especially mid-season, you have to ask why the team is trading him. Then he gets injured with SD, and then he can’t pitch in the playoffs.
How could anyone be stunned? I assumed that there had to be at least a decent chance he was injured when Cleveland, but his issues with SD made that almost automatic.
Wow. Just wow
Now to change my FA prediction….
I stand corrected on my statement about the Padres don’t regret this move. I was wrong, sorry guys
Not unexpected. Throws hard with a pretty violent motion. Hope he makes it back for a strong 2022.
Wow… that is rough for the Padres. Clevinger is super talented. Can’t wait to see him back on the mound in 2022.
Hard and confusing at the same
How are you going to sign someone knowing he is hurt ?
Preller
Didn’t he already have it once when he was a prospect with the Angels? If so then he’s toast.
Yes, TJ #2. Angels traded him to Cleveland while he was rehabbing #1.
Mind boggling that the Padres would throw money at him since they already had 2 years of control and they had to know that TJ was a distinct possibility.
Last time they did this it failed. 2 years for 1 year of subpar results. See Garret Richards
Clevinger was always tight with Bauer so take that for what it’s worth. Not saying I can prove he learned some training techniques that hurt his arm, just pointing out the connection. Sad this happened to a usually decent guy(overlooking his COVID mistake). I wish him the best.
Padres are good and young. I’d give their Gm the benefit of the doubt.
Go after snell from Tampa centered around patino or morejon.
First of all Clevinger is no Ace.
He’s pitched over 126 innings in a ML season once……once.
Now he’s lined up for TJ number two,and based on how long it took him to rebound from the first one, 2022 is no sure thing either.
The Indians have shown alarming prescience when it comes to trading veteran pitchers,so the lukewarm offer they accepted for Clevinger actually makes some sense if there is a time element involved and apparently (now,hindsight is great) there was.
Just another Preller gaffe.
Bingo
I disagree the Indians got all at best ave. players nothing special, if Clev comes back in 2022 and wins 15 games were the winner. There’s always two sides to the coin.
The contract was clear signed to give clevinger certainty as he rehabs. The team obviously knew.
Someone here called it in the comments last week.
Didn’t know a side effect of COVID was a busted elbow. Good to know
Smart move by the Padres here. No different than a 2-year deal to others just having TJS and when he’s ready and back to form the Padres will have another bullet.
Very smart + trade is wonderful
Will have another long hair
For a one year deal sign Tanka or Tijian both had decent years and they may be reasonable. Right now we need two signings for SP, we have too many question marks in our current rotation. If were going to make another run we need to have pitching, pitching and more pitching. We don’t need to sign Rosenthal as our closer save the money we have Pomeranz. .Pick up one middle relief pitcher.