10 former Cleveland Guardians who are still without a job entering Spring Training

4. Mike Clevinger

There is a reason why fans of certain teams are not necessarily all that thrilled once a trade has been agreed to with the Cleveland Guardians, and the trade that sent Mike Clevinger to the San Diego Padres certainly qualfiies as one of those.

Cleveland would end up sending Clevinger and Greg Allen to San Diego in exchange for Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, Austin Hedges, Gabriel Arias, Owen Miller, and Joey Cantillo. It is pretty safe to say that Cleveland has come out on the better end of that deal. Meanwhile, Clevinger appeared in just 27 games from 2020-2022 with the Padres, missing all of the 2021 season due to undergoing Tommy John surgery for the second time.

Clevinger would sign a one-year $8 million deal with Chicago White Sox last season, finishing with a 3.77 ERA and 1.226 WHIP in 24 starts. While he was able to shave over half a run off of his ERA, the rest of his numbers were relatively similar to his final season in San Diego.

There might be a place on some big league staff for Clevinger this season, but it does not seem like any organization is jumping at the chance to acquire his services. With his lengthy injury history, signing Clevinger is a very risky proposition that teams do not feel comfortable signing up for at the moment. Perhaps an injury to a key arm in a rotation this spring could lead to Clevinger signing, but until then, he will be stuck playing the waiting game.