Mike Clevinger

Now 16 months removed from Tommy John surgery, Clevinger believes he's made a full recovery from the procedure. The reports on his progress have been encouraging and Clevinger thinks he will be ready to go for the start of the 2022 season. New Padres manager Bob Melvin made it clear that Clevinger will be in the rotation, though Melvin added the caveat, "if 100 percent healthy." The team is taking it slowly with Clevinger this spring, which makes sense even if Clevinger is near the back-end of the usual recovery window from TJS. He had a brilliant 2018 season with Cleveland when he posted a 3.02 ERA over 200 innings, but the right-hander has never reached 130 innings in any other big-league season. A bet on Clevinger is a leap of faith on the health. The skills we've seen in the past make it tempting to take that leap.

When the Padres acquired Clevinger at the trade deadline, they figured to be securing an ace for the foreseeable future. The right-hander certainly looked the part early on, balancing one poor start with three strong ones for Cleveland prior to the deal. The move to the West Coast did little to dampen Clevinger's outlook as his numbers mostly improved after joining the Padres. There were a few areas of concern when examining his overall 2020 body of work -- namely, a 4.18 xFIP that exceeded his ERA by over a run and a 24.7 K% that was nearly 10 points lower than his 2019 mark -- but given the scrambled nature of the campaign and the fact Clevinger continued to miss bats at a healthy rate (12.8 SwStr%), San Diego should have entered 2021 giddy about him anchoring its rotation. Sadly, a late-season elbow issue turned out to need Tommy John surgery, so Clevinger won't be able to contribute until 2022.

Clevinger checks all the boxes of a fantasy ace. He features three plus pitches, led by a 96-mph fastball. His next best is a slider generating a 21.8% swinging strike mark followed by a change inducing swinging strikes 15.9% of the time. The only blemish is his curve with just 26th percentile spin, leading to a slightly-lower 13.9% swinging-strike rate but a hefty .405 BABIP. After a 200-inning campaign in 2018, Clevinger only threw 126 last season, with two IL stints. The first came after straining his back in his second start of the year. Clevinger spent nine weeks on the shelf before returning, only to go back for an ankle injury. After the minimum stay, Clevinger returned and never looked back. The Indians may be conservative so he may not reach the 200-inning plateau this season, but there's no reason he shouldn't come close. One last tidbit: Clevinger is 29, though he seems five years younger.

Clevinger avoided the sophomore slump in 2018 by not being a sophomore. He quietly exceeded his rookie eligibility in 2016. Last season was a nice step forward for Clevinger as he showed more command of his pitches than he had the previous two seasons and got to the 200-inning mark in just his third season in the majors. Although advanced pitch metrics show that all four of Clevinger's pitchers were better than average, he does struggle more against lefties who had 13 of the 21 homers against him last year and slugged 84 points better against than their right-handed teammates. Clevinger had a 31% increase in his workload from 2017 to 2018 (when including postseason work), but at age 28, that should not be as much of an issue as it is for other younger pitchers. Back-to-back seasons of stranding 80% of his runners is fortune rarely enjoyed by a starter, so factor in some ERA regression this season and you'll be fine.

Clevinger would be a first rounder if hair were a scoring category as he has a magical mane. What he does not have is consistent command as it comes and goes from game to game. There were times in 2017 when he looked dominating in outings and there were times he could not complete five innings due to high pitch counts and an inability to find the strike zone (4.4 BB/9). Clevinger has his flaws, but it is tough to overlook his potential as he strikes out 10 per nine innings and holds batters to a low batting average (.210), thus largely offsetting the free passes he is fond of handing out. His ERA was lower than it should have been as he stranded 79.7 percent of his runners, which is tough for a starting pitcher to do. He should be in the Cleveland rotation in 2018, so bank on wins, strikeouts and some WHIP help while keeping your fingers crossed that the ERA does not get too close to 4.00.

Clevinger looks like a Jacob deGrom starter kit, though he didn't quite pitch like one in a 53-inning debut sample. He has the 93-95 mph heater and three secondary pitches, but he leans on the slider and changeup while the curveball is more of a show-me pitch. The right-hander struggled a bit the third time through the lineup like most young arms. He also started slow so he really only found success in the third and fourth innings of his starts. He was also solid in 12 innings of relief. He needs to figure out righties again if he's going to find success similar to his minor league track record (3.41 ERA, 2.8 K/BB). Homers were his undoing, almost exclusively because of a lack of fastball command. He yielded too many walks with it to righties and lefties, but righties had a 600-point better OPS with five homers in 75 plate appearances. In summation: Clevinger has some common young-arm issues, but enough raw stuff to stay firmly on the radar.