April 18: Clevinger cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. He has enough major league service to reject the assignment in favor of free agency.
April 16: The White Sox announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Steven Wilson. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Mike Clevinger has been designated for assignment. The Sox also announced that righty Justin Anderson, who was designated for assignment last week, has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte.
Clevinger, 34, had some good years as a starter but never seemed to get back on track after Tommy John surgery. From 2017 through 2020, he posted a 2.96 earned run average and 28% strikeout rate across 489 1/3 innings in the majors. But he missed 2021 while recovering from TJS and hasn’t been able to get the punchouts back. From 2022 to 2024, he had a 4.20 ERA and 19.4% strikeout rate.
In 2024, he lingered unsigned into April before signing a $3MM deal with the White Sox. After a ramp-up period, he joined the club in May, making four starts before landing on the injured list with elbow inflammation. In July, he underwent season-ending disc replacement surgery in his neck.
Going into 2025, the Sox re-signed him via a minor league deal with the plan of trying him out in the bullpen. He tossed six scoreless innings in the spring and cracked the Opening Day roster but the regular season hasn’t been kind to him. So far, he has made eight appearances but logged just 5 2/3 innings. He has struck out three opponents but issued eight walks and allowed five earned runs.
It seems the Sox have decided to quickly pull the ripcord on the experiment. Given his poor results and $1.5MM salary this year, it’s unlikely there will be much interest from other clubs around the league. As a player with at least five years of service time, Clevinger has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping his salary in place. Unless he wants to report to Triple-A Charlotte and continue the relief experiment, he seems likely to be a free agent at some point in the next week.
Wilson, 30, was outrighted off the club’s roster in February. That left him to start the season in Triple-A, which has gone well so far. He has thrown 5 1/3 innings with one earned run, ten strikeouts and one walk. His big league track record consists of 140 2/3 innings between the Padres and White Sox with a 4.03 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate. He still has a full slate of options, so he’ll give the Sox an extra bullpen arm with some roster flexibility.
Anderson has hit the three-year mark in terms of service time, which gives him the right to reject his outright assignment. However, since he has less than five years, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary to elect free agency. He and the Sox avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $900K salary this year. Presumably, he’ll want to keep that coming and will report to Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll give the Sox some non-roster depth and try to work his way back to the big leagues.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Put a fork in him…
He’s that bad? What about a minor league contract? Lmk
yyyyeeeesssss,THERE IS A FKN GOD CEE YAA
He actually tried telling his story walking….walking practically batter he faced.
How was white Sox Steven Wilson so bad last year? Padres Steven Wilson was so good.
The Niebla Effect, but in reverse.
Dude had 102 appearances and a 3.48 ERA.
Then the White Sox broke him.
looks like Lance Lynn is going to get some golf buddies
Too many girlfriends at the team hotel.
Partying w Zach Plesac during Covid quarantine too on their trip to Chicago, ending with Zach getting banished from team plane and sent back to Eastern Ohio by Uber. Good times
Baseball players have far less than NBA or NFL.
He looks like a stylist type of fella? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
They are young men with lots of money traveling from town to town. I’m surprised there are not more.
Gotta WRAP IT UP.
The temptation is always staring you in the face, lol.
Hopefully he gets it going in AAA, still like Clevinger to find his A game, or his AAA game, and eventually stick in the Sox bullpen.
Lol
bwmiller: With the way the Sox operate you just know he’ll be back on a minor league contract in a day or two.
Cut two former angels in one day. Now clevinger can cut his hair, and come back to the angels.
He made his money and will be just fine.
Dude just isn’t the same guy after he missed a season. Maybe a trip to the barber shop could help
In his later years and to his detriment, Clev turned into a better hitter than a pitcher.
Or maybe he could lay off the shrooms for a while…
Let’s get that ERA up Mike by going to the Rockies 😉
Clevinger’s signature pee pee dance windup will be missed in MLB. Fair winds and following seas, tiny dancer.
He can go spend more time with his kids
We see what you did there… And we approve!
Not that the White Sox have had a save opportunity yet, but who is the closer du jour now?
Buckner: I doubt even they know. They just kinda make it up as they go along.
One of these 3 is the closer
Dfa is always rough but When u get dfa’ed by the worst tm of all time, its time to consider moving to the korean league
Ugh. I knew I hadn’t seen the last of ol’ Justin “Gas Can” Anderson.
he needs 1 more season to get his 10 years of service, come on Angels, I know you wanna.
@cmanson. He hates the angels, I’m not sure who it was maybe madden or black, but they were hassling him about his hair and he got traded for Vinny pestrano
I always thought Clevinger was overrated. I was always convinced that his wild pitching style was a) not physically sustainable and b) felt like unnecessary flare to distract from how mediocre his stuff actually was.
I haven’t watched him pitch this season or during spring training- or if I did, it didn’t stick out in my mind at this point.
Anyway- always thought his pitching was mediocre at best and overrated, having a ‘moment’ in part thanks to his appearance- the long hair, the herky jerky spaztic style where his entire body flew off the mound each pitch and he had to like, reset his entire body, his hair, etc.
I just think of guys like Clevinger vs guys like Cliff Lee who showed zero emotion, had very little movement in his action beyond the pitch itself- both are kinda weird to me lol.
Anyway- yeah, had a moment, overrated, not surprised that his approach didn’t age well or allow him to really thrive at any point.
Clevinger was good when he pitched for Cleveland. His problem was being best buds with Bauer. Those two also messed up Plesac’s career.
Bring back Flexen in the BP
Whoa, don’t go Flexen on us!
Package deal with Trevor Gott!!!
Guy has always been a head case with a pitching motion that screams injury. Two strikes.
This dude had filthy stiff when he was with Cleveland. Always dominated the Angels when he pitched against them. Was tough to watch knowing he was originally in the Angels organization. Seems that is always the case when Angels trade guys. Why is that!!! Even Patrick Corbin—another former Angel prospect— is shutting them down today (so far).
former Dodgers 1B Steve Garvey had more out of wedlock kids than anyone else, I think he had 12, and there was some pretty tough competition for that honor
And many of his children hate him because he’s a scumbag. He sued to see two of his kids and they said they don’t want anything to do with him. Garvey is subhuman garbage.
Family values that Garvey and not even Mormon
He’s not my Padre!!!
George Washington has relinquished his title of “ Father of the Country” to Steve Garvey.
I mean this country is full of bigots and deadbeats nowadays, so I guess Garvey deserves the title.
Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!
Clevenger was good for a short while in Cleveland, and Bauer helped him pitching-wise BUT his herky/jerky pitching motion and full body effort was a dooming future factor. The TJ surgery and minimal recovery was the final career ending chapter. He has been on fumes since.
He’s got 30 million in the bag, if this is the end at least he’s got financial security.
Yokohama! Where he can team up with buddy Bauer…
Bauer Outage has entered the chat.
White Sox likely hoping some team grabs him after he clears and they can get back half of the $1.5MM salary.
Yippee for the hippee
Tony Hawk never signed the skateboard and it was all downhill thereafter
He’ll be back as a starter
Hmm… I don’t usually see an ERA so close to a SIERA. He’s definitely pitching as reflected by his ERA. Time to retire…