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Mike Clevinger

Mike Clevinger At Full Intensity In Return From Knee Surgery

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Indians righty Mike Clevinger seems to be recovering quite nicely from offseason knee surgery. He tells MLB.com’s Mandy Bell that he’s working at “100 percent intensity now.”

Skipper Terry Francona said yesterday that Clevinger was among the rehabbing Cleveland players making progress. But it seems the ace righty is even further along.

The real challenge faced by Clevinger is more or less the one confronting every other ballplayer. He says he’s “monitoring the progression in the weight room” but otherwise running a mostly normal schedule — within the confines of a pandemic shutdown.

Clevinger says he was “doing beach workouts” before that became untenable. He’s now throwing to a catcher in a “facility that’s clean, sanitized, no one’s going in there.” Clevinger says he’d “like to have more of a set plan,” adding that he understands it just isn’t possible at the moment.

[RELATED: Mike Clevinger: The One That Got Away From The Halos]

The Indians are no doubt keeping a keen interest in Clevinger’s activities. He’s a critical part of the team’s plans, now and in the future. His knee surgery wasn’t serious, but the last thing anyone wants is for some other issue to crop up while he’s finishing off his rehab work and building back up on the mound.

Indians Provide Updates On 5 Injured Players

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Prior to the leaguewide shutdown, the Indians faced questions about a number of key players, including Mike Clevinger (knee surgery), Carlos Carrasco (elbow inflammation), Emmanuel Clase (teres major strain), Oscar Mercado (wrist sprain) and Tyler Naquin (2018 ACL repair surgery). At this point, nearly all of them are up to speed, manager Terry Francona told reporters Thursday (link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com).

Clase, Francona explained, is a bit harder to track than the others because he lives in a fairly remote area of the Dominican Republic. The club is likely to send someone from its Dominican academy down to get a first-hand look in the near future. Clase has been throwing off flat ground — Indians Prospective tweeted some video footage — as he works back from an injury that was initially projected to sideline him for eight to 12 weeks. It’s been exactly seven weeks since that diagnosis, so it seems there’s a good chance that whenever play is able to resume, Clase will either be recovered or close to it.

Updates on the others were more generic but widely positive. Carrasco has been throwing regular bullpen sessions, recording them and sending video footage to Indians officials. Clevinger, Naquin and Mercado are all doing “great” or “fine.” That’s particularly encouraging with regard to Naquin, whose September surgery was projected to keep him out seven to nine months (into mid-April or mid-June). It seems that his recovery is on track for the shorter end of that timeline.

Carrasco, Clevinger and Mercado, in particular, will be vital pieces for Cleveland as they look to rise back to the top of the ranks in the AL Central. With Corey Kluber traded to Texas (in the deal that netted Clase), Carrasco and Clevinger will team with Shane Bieber atop a rotation that will otherwise rely on some intriguing but generally inexperienced young arms in the final two spots (e.g. Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, Logan Allen, Scott Moss, Jefry Rodriguez).

Mercado, meanwhile, is perhaps the one constant in an Indians outfield mix that looks decidedly unsettled. He should play center on a regular basis, with some combination of Domingo Santana, Jordan Luplow, Franmil Reyes, Greg Allen, Delino DeShields Jr. (also acquired in the Kluber swap), Jake Bauers, Bradley Zimmer and Naquin filling in at the corners. Luplow’s dominance of left-handed pitchers should assure him at least the short side of a platoon, and Reyes might factor in more as a DH than a prominent piece of the outfield rotation. But it’s clear that opportunities for playing time in the corners will be relatively wide open.

Clase, presumably, is being treated as a potential high-end setup piece for Brad Hand. The right-hander made his MLB debut with Texas in 2019 and compiled a 2.31 ERA with a 21-to-6 K/BB ratio and a superlative 60.6 percent ground-ball rate in 23 1/3 innings while averaging 99.3 mph on his heater. Clase skipped Triple-A entirely, but the success he found in last year’s 21 MLB games provides little to no reason to send him back down.

Mike Clevinger: The One That Got Away From The Halos

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The post-trade-deadline trades of yore can’t happen anymore under baseball’s current rules. That’s a shame in some respects, because the August revocable waiver trade period delivered some doozies over the years. Here’s a story about one of them …

Back in 2014, the Angels were sprinting towards an AL West title and looking to bolster their bullpen. GM Jerry Dipoto had already swung a series of deals: he acquired closer Huston Street, nabbed lefty setup man Joe Thatcher, made a memorable change of scenery deal to get Jason Grilli for Ernesto Frieri, and even took a flier on Rich Hill (who never contributed in Anaheim).

The Street swap — the biggest of these moves — took place two weeks before the trade deadline. Dipoto was understandably still itching to improve a talented roster and ensure that the team was fully loaded for the postseason when an interesting opportunity arose in early August …

Vinnie Pestano

Vinnie Pestano was on the outs with the Indians. He was excellent in 2011 and 2012 but had stumbled in the ensuing two seasons. Still, a glance at his 2014 numbers shows why the Halos perked up when they saw his name scroll across the waiver wire.

Pestano, then 29, had a 13:1 K/BB ratio in nine MLB innings that year — even if he also allowed five earned runs. And in his 30 1/3 Triple-A frames, he owned a 1.78 ERA with 37 strikeouts against a dozen walks. It didn’t hurt that Pestano was earning just $975K and could be controlled through 2017.

The Indians hadn’t put Pestano on revocable waivers with intentions of letting him go for nothing. When the Angels were awarded the claim, they had to work out a deal to bring Pestano over from Cleveland.

It turned out that Dipoto had managed to make the above-noted additions without sacrificing any prospects who ended up turning out to be big losses over the long haul. That wasn’t so with the Pestano move, which cost a little-known prospect by the name of Mike Clevinger.

Mike Clevinger | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

At the time, the 2011 fourth-rounder was on the radar but hardly an elite prospect. He was still in the middle of his first full professional season, having been sidelined for much of 2012-13 owing to Tommy John surgery. And though he had shown quite well at the Class A level to open the 2014 campaign, Clevinger had only managed a 5.37 ERA over his 55 1/3 High-A frames.

Clevinger didn’t exactly hit the ground running with the Cleveland organization, as he struggled through just five more High-A appearances after arriving. He really popped in 2015, when he punished Double-A hitters to the tune of a 2.73 ERA in 158 innings. Still, as the 2016 season approached, the idea of a Jacob deGrom career path was mostly floated because the two hurlers both feature flowing locks.

While he wasn’t then and never would be a top-100 sort of prospect, that was also true of deGrom. And as it turned out, Clevinger has tracked a lot more closely to the Mets star than anyone could’ve seriously predicted.

Clevinger went through some rookie struggles but produced very good results in 2017 and 2018. Last year, he took an ace turn. Though he missed a significant stretch owing to a teres major muscle strain, Clevinger produced monster numbers when healthy. Over 126 innings, he worked to a 2.71 ERA with 12.1 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.

While he suffered some more poor fortune with a meniscus tear this spring, that’s likely not to impact the future (particularly since he’s rehabbing while the season is on hold). Suffice to say that Clevinger is one of the game’s more valuable pitching commodities, as he’s just entering his first of three arbitration-eligible seasons. (He’ll earn $4.1MM.)

Ironically enough, the Angels showed trade interest in Clevinger this spring … with the Indians reportedly responding by asking about elite prospect Jo Adell. The Halos would surely rather not have traded him away in the first place. Pestano did make a dozen strong appearances down the stretch in 2014, with two more in the team’s unsuccessful ALDS appearance, but he washed out in 2015 and hasn’t been seen in the majors since. It’s yet another reminder that sometimes those under-the-radar deals end up being quite important over the long haul.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mike Clevinger To Undergo Knee Surgery

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7:03pm: Clevinger is expected to be able to return to action in six to eight weeks, the team tells reporters including MLB.com’s Mandy Bell (Twitter link).

8:58am: Indians ace Mike Clevinger is slated to undergo surgery to repair a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic (Twitter link). Clevinger has been on crutches after sustaining the injury while training earlier this week. A timetable for his return is not yet known.

While a meniscus tear typically isn’t a season-ender, it also seems highly unlikely that Clevinger would be ready to open the season in the Cleveland rotation. The extent of his rehab will be determined following the operation, but even a return on the short end of typical meniscus timelines would leave Clevinger with little (if any) time to ramp up for the season.

The Indians, for the first time in several years, will head into the season as underdogs in the American League Central — and the loss of Clevinger for any portion of the season will only dampen their hopes. The team is deep in pitching options, but Clevinger and fellow righty Shane Bieber were the two best options at manager Terry Francona’s disposal. (Carlos Carrasco, of course, is immensely talented but more of a wild card following last year’s battle with leukemia.)

Bieber and Carrasco figure to front the rotation now, and the Indians will likely choose among Zach Plesac, Aaron Civale, Adam Plutko, Jefry Rodriguez, Logan Allen and Scott Moss to round out the final three spots in the rotation. Both Plesac (3.81 ERA in 115 2/3 innings) and Civale (2.34 ERA in 57 2/3 innings) looked sharp in their respective MLB debuts in 2019, although fielding-independent pitching metrics considered both to be more than a full run worse than his eared run average. Plutko has been up and down with the Indians over the past three seasons, posting a combined 5.08 ERA/5.61 FIP in 189 2/3 frames. Rodriguez posted similar results to the rest of that group (4.63 ERA/4.54 FIP in 46 2/3 innings).

The 22-year-old Allen, meanwhile, is a well-regarded southpaw who came over in last summer’s three-team Trevor Bauer/Franmil Reyes/Yasiel Puig blockbuster. He’s light on big league experience but considered one of the organization’s more promising arms. Moss, too, was acquired in that swap. Unlike Allen, he’s yet to make his big league debut. He did post strong numbers in the upper minors in 2019, however, including a hearty 159 strikeouts in just 130 2/3 frames. Control is an issue for the 6’6″ lefty, but he’ll get a look as a potential option in the coming weeks.

Indians Avoid Arbitration With Francisco Lindor, Mike Clevinger

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4:23pm: Mike Clevinger also has a deal with the Cleveland org, per Zack Meisel of The Athletic (via Twitter). It’s a $4.1MM deal, per Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link).

Clevinger had projected for $400K more than the settlement point. As MLBTR’s Matt Swartz explained, there was a good argument for him to reach his $4.5MM projection. But the Indians were able to hold Clevinger to just under the amount secured by Kyle Hendricks in 2018.

1:48pm: The Indians have avoided arbitration with shortstop Francisco Lindor, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). He’ll reportedly earn $17.5MM in a deal that also includes some award incentives.

The arbitration model of MLBTR and Matt Swartz projected a $16.7MM salary for the still-youthful star. But it was an especially difficult number to gauge, as Matt explained in his recent look at Lindor’s arb case.

Interestingly, Matt had anticipated that his projection was a bit high. It turned out to be low. As he noted in that post, the difficulty was in sorting out how to handle the positional adjustment for Lindor. While recent raises for lumbering sluggers might have operated as caps for Lindor’s earnings, he obviously could and would have argued that his defensive proficiency should be weighed on the scale. The team obviously agreed — or, at least, felt there was a legitimate chance that an arbitrator would be swayed by such evidence.

This now makes for an important market marker to bear in mind in the future. Of course, it’s likelier to act as a ceiling unless a truly exceptional player comes along. Lindor, who just turned 26, swatted 32 home runs and slashed .284/.335/.518 in 654 plate appearances in 2019.

Arbitration Breakdown: Mike Clevinger

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Over the coming days, I am discussing some of the higher profile upcoming arbitration cases. So far, we’ve previewed Josh Bell, Cody Bellinger, Francisco Lindor and Jonathan Villar. For these pieces, I rely partly on my arbitration model developed exclusively for MLB Trade Rumors, but will also break out some interesting comparables and determine where the model might be wrong. 2020 projections are available right here.

Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger only started 21 games in 2019, but when he was healthy, he was dominant. Despite being limited to 126 innings, the 29-year-old had a 13-4 record and 2.71 ERA with 169 strikeouts — all numbers that will factor strongly into his arbitration case. In his career, Clevinger already has a 41-21 record and a 3.20 ERA in 500 2/3 innings. My model projects him at $4.5MM the first time through arbitration, but finding comparables is tricky due to his missed time in his platform year.

Mike Clevinger | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

To look for comparables, I focused on a rather narrow scope: first-time eligible pitchers in the past five years who pitched between 75 and 150 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA in their platform year and who had 35-plus career wins.

Gerrit Cole in 2017 and Kyle Hendricks in 2018 were the only two pitchers to match those specifications. The former got $3.75MM, and the latter got $4.18MM. Both of those pitchers only won seven games in their platform season, however. Cole did have 47 career wins, topping Clevinger’s 41, but his platform ERA of 3.88 is clearly worse than Clevinger’s 2.71. Hendricks is more comparable, with a robust 2.94 career ERA that is similar to Clevinger’s 3.20. Hendricks’ 38-22 record favorably compares to Clevinger’s 41-21 mark as well. Hendricks makes for a pretty good comp, and adding two years of inflation onto his first-time arbitration salary would probably put Clevinger right around the $4.5MM that the model projects for him.

Another potential comparable who had fewer career wins and a weaker platform season, but was otherwise fairly similar, is Jacob deGrom back in 2017. He went 7-8 with a 3.90 ERA in 148 innings in his platform year, but he had a 2.74 career ERA and a 30-22 record with 479 1/3 innings. DeGrom got $3.9MM his first time through arbitration. This is a likely floor for Clevinger—it seems clear that he should safely exceed $4MM.

What is tricky about first-time eligible pitchers is that for more than a decade, they have rarely broken the $4.5MM barrier. Three pitchers did as part of multi-year deals: Tim Lincecum in 2010, Clayton Kershaw in 2012, and Lance Lynn in 2015. However, Kershaw had a Cy Young Award on his resume, and Lincecum had two. Lynn was a unique multi-year deal that was extremely flat (three years, $22MM), so the $7MM attributed to the first year is not really a reliable number on which to base any Clevinger predictions. The only first-time eligible pitcher who signed a one-year deal worth more than $4.5MM was Dallas Keuchel, who landed a $7.25MM salary after earning a Cy Young Award.

All told, when you consider Clevinger being limited to 21 starts in 2019, he seems unlikely to be the one who breaks the $4.5MM barrier that has been so difficult for first-time pitchers to surpass. However, it also seems likely that he should hit Hendricks’ $4.18MM salary — and probably exceed it. Viewed through this lens, Clevinger appears likely to get close to his model-projected salary.

Angels Interested In Mike Clevinger

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The Angels and Indians have discussed a trade involving right-hander Mike Clevinger, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports.  Talks between the two clubs have seemingly stalled, however, or at least “there has not been active dialogue in recent days,” as Morosi described the situation.  It’s possible to imagine that negotiations may have not have gotten far at all, given how Morosi reports that the Indians’ first ask was top Angels prospect Jo Adell as well as another player.

Adell is a consensus top-five prospect in baseball, ranked #2 in the sport by both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, #3 by Fangraphs, and #5 by MLB Pipeline.  This impressive set of ratings comes despite an abbreviated 2019 season for Adell, who was waylaid by ankle and hamstring injuries and limited to just 341 PA over 76 total games at three different minor league levels.  Only 27 of those games came with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, and since Adell had only a .676 OPS over 132 PA for the Bees, the Angels could opt to give him a bit more seasoning time at Triple-A before summoning him to the big leagues (and of course, the team would gain an extra year of control over Adell by keeping him in the minors for at least a few weeks).

Still, Adell is expected to make his MLB debut in 2020 and could be counted on as an everyday player by season’s end.  It has been widely speculated that the Halos will use 2019 breakout star Brian Goodwin in right field until Adell is ready for a promotion, and then Adell and Goodwin will, at worst, split duties for the remainder of the year.  Should Adell make an immediate impact (or even if Goodwin matches his strong production from last season), the Angels promise to boast one of the league’s stronger outfields, assuming Justin Upton returns to good health and Mike Trout continues his Cooperstown-level domination of the sport.

With so much expected of Adell so soon, it isn’t surprising that the Angels balked at moving him in any trade demand, even for a pitcher like Clevinger.  The 29-year-old righty has a 2.96 ERA, 3.13 K/BB rate, and 10.3 K/9 over 500 2/3 innings since the start of the 2017 season.  Clevinger is controlled through the 2022 season and is projected to earn $4.5MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility; his initial arb salary would surely have been much higher were it not for a teres major muscle injury that cost him around two months of action last year.

Between Clevinger’s cost-controlled price tag and strong results on the mound, Cleveland has seemingly no immediate reason to move him for anything less than a huge return.  The payroll-conscious Tribe has already moved Corey Kluber to the Rangers this offseason and might yet still trade Francisco Lindor, though those players are much more expensive and offer less years of control than Clevinger.  In fact, despite Kluber’s salary and injury-plagued 2019, it’s fair to wonder whether the Indians would have moved the former Cy Young Award winner had it not been for the team’s comfort level in Clevinger as the new ace of their staff, not to mention the development of young arms Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale.

The Padres and Dodgers have also had interest in Clevinger this offseason, and it’s probably safe to guess that any club in need of pitching has at least checked in with the Tribe to see if a deal could be found for Clevinger or perhaps any member of the impressive Cleveland rotation.  The Angels have added Dylan Bundy and Julio Teheran to their starting five this offseason and will be getting Shohei Ohtani back from Tommy John surgery, though Anaheim still lags behind many contending teams in terms of both depth and frontline arms.  Clevinger was actually picked by the Angels in the fourth round of the 2011 draft, but was sent to Cleveland in an August 2014 trade for reliever Vinnie Pestano.

Mike Clevinger Drawing Trade Interest

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TODAY: The Dodgers continue to be “very aggressive in pursuit of” Clevinger and Lindor, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.

DEC. 19: Indians righty Mike Clevinger is drawing trade interest, per Robert Murray (Twitter link), although the team is said to have put a “crazy high” asking price on the soon-to-be 29-year-old. The Padres and Dodgers are among the clubs to have at least inquired on Clevinger, although there are quite likely others, given the sizable demand for starting pitching, the dwindling supply in free agency and Cleveland’s recent trade of Corey Kluber.

Interest in Clevinger isn’t much of a surprise. He enters his age-29 season with three years of club control remaining and a sterling 2.96 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9 and a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate over the past three seasons (477 2/3 innings in total). Clevinger missed about two months with a teres major strain last year but otherwise hasn’t had a notable injury since undergoing Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer back in 2012.

The Indians’ front office is widely believed to be working with a slimmer budget this season than in recent years, as ownership has opted to scale back spending after reaching record payroll levels in 2017-18. That payroll preference was perhaps the primary reason that Kluber was moved — as opposed to holding onto him in hopes of receiving a better offer this summer — and it’s part of the reason that the club will at least listen to proposals on players like Clevinger and superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor. But president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff have repeatedly stated that they expect Lindor to be their Opening Day shortstop; Antonetti reiterated as much in an appearance on MLB Network this week (video link). And while there’s been no declaration on Clevinger’s status, he’s likely viewed as a similarly vital piece of the team’s core.

Clevinger is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.5MM in his first trip through the arbitration process this winter, so he’s nowhere near as pricey as Kluber ($17.5MM) or Lindor ($16.7MM projected salary). And, because he’s controlled for three more years and his salary isn’t yet prohibitive (relative to Paul Dolan’s apparent spending preferences), one can imagine that it would indeed take a staggering offer to pry Clevinger from the organization’s grasp.

Elite prospects like Gavin Lux and Dustin May have been frequently mentioned in trade rumblings surrounding the Dodgers and Lindor, and it stands to reason that the Indians would have a similarly high ask to consider parting ways with Clevinger. While he may not match Lindor in pure 2020 value, he’s about 25 percent as expensive and can be controlled a year longer than Lindor. Essentially, fans hoping to see their club secure a talent the caliber of Clevinger or Lindor should make a list of the young, controllable players with whom they’d be most reluctant to part … and then expect that at least one and more likely two of said group would be at center of such a deal (in addition to some lesser prospects).

Indians Place Mike Clevinger On 10-Day IL

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FRIDAY: The Indians have placed Clevinger on the IL (retroactive to June 18) and recalled lefty Josh Smith from Triple-A Columbus, Mandy Bell of MLB.com tweets.

THURSDAY: After spending over two months on the injury list, Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger is likely going to be sidelined again due to a sprained left ankle, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.  Clevinger suffered the injury on Monday, while fielding a grounder in the second inning of the Tribe’s 7-2 loss to the Rangers.  He stayed in to finish the outing, ultimately lasting 4 2/3 innings and allowing five earned runs.

An IL placement could be somewhat precautionary in nature, as Hoynes thinks Clevinger could ultimately just miss one start if the Tribe backdates the move to June 18th.  As Clevinger only just returned from a teres major muscle strain, the team doesn’t want him to try and tough it out with an injury to his plant foot, which Hoynes notes could alter his delivery and lead to more serious injury problems.  Clevinger had been slated to start on Saturday against Detroit.

While this latest injury seems pretty minor, it still represents an unwelcome setback for a Cleveland team that needs all the help it can get as the Tribe try to remain in the wild card race (and within shouting distance of the Twins in the AL Central).  Clevinger has emerged as one of the Indians’ better pitchers over the last two seasons, and looked great in his first two outings of 2019 before his first injury absence.

Indians Activate Mike Clevinger

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JUNE 17: The Indians will make room for Clevinger by moving Kluber to the 60-day IL and optioning lefty Josh Smith, Bell tweets.

JUNE 12: The Indians will activate starter Mike Clevinger to take the ball on Monday, MLB.com’s Mandy Bell was among those to cover on Twitter. Clevinger recently made a second rehab appearance as part of his recovery from an upper back/teres major strain.

While the club ended up going without the excellent righty for just over two months, that’s actually a relief. When it was determined that his injury was worse than originally believed, it seemed that he might need that much time just for rest and rehab.

Clevinger, 28, will make for a significant boost to a club that has dealt with a trio of blows to its exceptional starting staff. Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco remain sidelined, but the Cleveland organization can now slot in another co-ace alongside Trevor Bauer at the front of the rotation.

The Indians will hope that Clevinger can pick up where he left off. In his first dozen frames of the year, he allowed just a pair of hits while racking up a 22:4 K/BB ratio. It’ll take a big effort from Clevinger and the rest of the roster to track down the division-leading Twins, but that’s not out of the realm of possibility and the Indians remain in the thick of the Wild Card hunt.

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