Seattle Mariners Suspend Steve Clevenger for Season

Being a marginal Major League backup is a difficult enough situation when one is not shooting their mouth off. For the Seattle Mariners Steve Clevenger, his racist tweets have caused him to be in hot water.

It has already proven to be a terrible trade. In what was essentially a salary dump, the Seattle Mariners traded Mark Trumbo and C.J. Riefenhauser to the Baltimore Orioles for Steve Clevenger. While Trumbo is leading the American League in home runs, Clevenger has appeared in 22 games before being placed on the 60 day DL with a broken bone in his hand.

Unfortunately, that hand injury did not affect his ability to Tweet. He posted a pair of racist tweets, and then locked his account after receiving criticism for his stance on the Black Lives Matter movement. Yesterday, the Mariners announced that Clevenger will be suspended without pay for the rest of the season.

After this, it seems likely that his time with the Seattle Mariners is over. It is not as though backup catchers are a rare commodity, and Clevenger’s .221/.303/.309 batting line is not exactly going to force the Mariners hand. Based on their strongly worded rebuke, and the swiftness in which they distanced themselves from his views, Clevenger may not be welcome back.

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Of course, Clevenger does have the right to speak his mind, regardless of how unpopular his opinion may be. No one is disputing that. However, the Mariners also have the right to react to his statements in any way they see fit. Given that his viewpoints, spread across social media, could be considered as damaging to the Mariners brand, they were well within their rights to suspend him.

It will be interesting to see what the next step in the process will be. Could Clevenger file a grievance with the Player’s Union, seeking to get back his wages? Will the Mariners bring him back next season? If Clevenger is let go, will another team take a chance on bringing him in?

Life as a backup in the Majors can be difficult enough. For someone like Clevenger, who had yet to spend a full season at the big league level, it can be even harder to find one’s footing. Tweeting out controversial, and racist, thoughts certainly does not help with that.

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Steve Clevenger has been suspended by the Seattle Mariners for the rest of the season. It may also be fair to wonder if his baseball career is in doubt as well.