This evening, before the official report date for pitchers and catchers, an update was provided on Mike Clevinger’s situation. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Clevinger will be permitted to be a full participant in Spring Training with the White Sox. He will not be placed on administrative leave at this time, but it is assumed MLB’s investigation into Clevinger will continue.
A few weeks ago, as you’ll remember, it was revealed via Brittany Grihol of The Athletic that new White Sox right-hander Mike Clevinger is under active MLB investigation for domestic violence and child abuse. The full story is available at the link in the following tweet.
Here is an excerpt from the article, which goes into detail regarding the investigation:
“Olivia Finestead, the 24-year-old mother of Clevinger’s child, told The Athletic on Tuesday that she has been in contact with individuals from MLB’s Department of Investigations since this summer. According to Finestead, she has detailed to those investigators incidents of physical, verbal and emotional abuse, including an incident from last June in which Finestead said Clevinger choked her, and another about two weeks later when she said Clevinger slapped her in a hotel room when the team was playing the Dodgers and threw used chewing tobacco on their child.”
Previously, the White Sox released a statement, saying that they would not be discussing the investigation. It was later revealed that the White Sox were unaware of the investigation into Clevinger at the time of his signing, now leaving the White Sox with the decision to either employ Clevinger throughout the investigation or cut him from the roster and pay him the entirety of his $12M deal he signed with the team and likely face legal ramifications from Clevinger. The investigation has been ongoing since last June, so it’s fair to question why this has not reached a resolution in nearly nine months.
At the same time, the White Sox are no strangers to controversy recently, as before the organization agreed to terms with Tony La Russa on his original contract as White Sox’ manager, they were made aware of a second DUI that had occurred and that La Russa would appear in court for. This follows a string of minor league incidents related to Omar Vizquel and, last season, Charlotte Knights manager Wes Helms, who was put on indefinite leave without much clarity into the situation.
Rick Hahn is scheduled to speak to the media on Wednesday with the official start of the team’s Spring Training practices, so it’s more than likely that Hahn will be providing an update on Clevinger – or as much as he will be legally allowed to say.
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