Cleveland Indians: Potential Destinations for Mike Clevinger

The Cleveland Indians seem intent on being profitable instead of competitive.  Every player in Cleveland is “For Sale” and Mike Clevinger is starting to draw significant interest.

For the last few seasons, the Cleveland Indians have trotted out an elite rotation featuring Aces like Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger, and the newly elite Shane Bieber.  Two pitchers from that group have been traded out-of-town due to their dwindling years of control and 8 figure salaries.  It would seem the next man to pack his bags is Mike Clevinger.

Clevinger might be the most underrated pitcher in all of baseball, pitching in the shadows of the other aces in the rotation.  Clevinger has been nothing short of electric the past two seasons pitching to 4.2 and 4.5 fWAR.  More impressive is that Clevinger’s 2019 was his best season ever despite only 126 innings due to a hamstring injury.  Extrapolate that production over a full season and Clevinger is a bonafide ace.  Taking a look at his Statcast profile and you see a guy who brings an electric fastball, multiple breaking balls, and top scale contact management skills.  In fact, since 2017 Clevinger has been a top 20 pitcher by WAR.  For visual learners, you can see Clevinger’s entire arsenal below.

Clevinger is an ace with 3 years of control who would step to the front of just about any rotation.  His projected arbitration salary this year will likely fall around $4.5M so he is affordable for anyone.

From a pure future value perspective, Mike Clevinger could be expected to produce $108M (assuming he retains his 4.5 fWAR form and $8M/Win valuation).  Let’s assume Clevinger’s salaries over the next three years will total in the $20M, which brings his total value to just under $90M.   The Cleveland Indians will be right to ask for a king’s ransom and more in any trade, so who might be ready to swing a deal?