If nothing else, Mike Clevinger was supposed to provide the White Sox with a reliable five or six innings each time out.
Then Clevinger went out at posted a 6.75 ERA over four starts, none of which featured five complete innings, before landing on the injured list today with right elbow inflammation. While Blake Snell draws all the headlines for reaping the costs of missing spring training, Clevinger has openly admitted hitting a stamina wall midway through all his outings so far. Now, maybe the issues ran deeper than stamina.
So.
The White Sox filled Clevinger's spot in the rotation by adding non-roster invitee Jake Woodford to both the 40-man and 26-man rosters. In order to make room for him, the Sox designated Sammy Peralta for assignment after they'd just claimed Peralta off waivers from Seattle on Sunday.
Clevinger's injury doesn't come as a complete surprise in hindsight, as the White Sox bumped Clevinger back in the rotation last week prior to Nick Nastrini's return to the rotation. Then again, the last-minute nature of this news -- along with the DFA of Brad Keller when he seemed largely interchangeable with Clevinger -- suggests the White Sox had hopes that Clevinger could work through it.
Instead, the White Sox are now hoping that he'll be ready after the 15-day stay.
Woodford isn't a bad candidate for an emergency start. He hadn't quite forced the issue himself, but he's been better than his 5.26 ERA over 10 starts and 49 2/3 innings at Charlotte would suggest. He dug himself a hole by allowing nine runs over one-third of an inning to the Norfolk Tides during that cursed month-long week in early April, but in his eight starts since, he's posted a 3.86 ERA while averaging 5 1/3 innings an appearance, and he's coming off a string of three consecutive quality starts.
He'd spent parts of the last four seasons in the majors with the Cardinals, where he went 10-7 with a 4.29 ERA between the rotation and bullpen. His time with St. Louis came to an unceremonious end when he posted a 6.23 ERA and yielded 11 homers over 47⅔ innings in 2023, as he spent a lot of the year dealing with shoulder issues.
Now healthy, it doesn't seem as though he's arsenal is materially different -- a 92 mph sinker leads the way, followed by a sweeper -- but a look at his Statcast data from Charlotte says that he's less insistent on being a ground-baller and letting his sweeper (and cutter) do more of the work.
