White Sox adding Mike Clevinger to starting rotation

The White Sox addressed one of their top areas of need, signing free agent right-hander Mike Clevinger, a source confirmed. The deal is pending a physical and has not been announced.

Clevinger joins an all-righty starting unit that includes Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn, Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito. Johnny Cueto, one of the team’s top starters in 2022, is a free agent.

Clevinger, who underwent Tommy John surgery following the 2020 season and did not pitch in 2021, posted a 4.33 ERA over 114¹⁄₃ innings in 2022. In two playoff starts, he lasted a total of 2²⁄₃ innings, allowing seven earned runs. A right knee sprain suffered in spring training sidelined him for the first month of the season, and he was later sidelined with a right triceps strain.

Clevinger, who will be 32 next season, posted a 2.96 ERA beween 2017-20 with the Cleveland Indians and Padres. During that span, Clevinger was among baseball’s top starters, owned a 28.3% strikeout rate, 40.2% groundball rate and 9.1% walk rate.

The Padres acquired Clevinger from Cleveland in a multi-player trade on Aug. 31 of 2020.