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Mike Clevinger Traded to the San Diego Padres

Mike Clevinger

Mike Clevinger Heads to San Diego

The San Diego Padres continued their buying spree at this year’s trade deadline Monday. It was announced that the team acquired Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger. First with the news was Robert Murray on Twitter.

This trade makes five trades for the Padres in three days. On Saturday, the team landed reliever Trevor Rosenthal from the Kansas City Royals. Then, on Sunday the team added Mitch Moreland from the Boston Red Sox to it’s lineup along with catcher Jason Castro from the Los Angeles Angels and catcher Austin Nola from the Seattle Mariners. The Nola trade ended up being a seven-player swap.

With Clevinger in the mix now, it’s going to be hard for any team to beat the Padres in a three-game postseason series. San Diego has Chris Paddack to anchor things down at the top of the rotation. After that, it would presumably be Dinelson Lamet and then Clevinger.

Return for Mike Clevinger

Ken Rosenthal was the first with the full return for Mike Clevinger on Twitter.

Obviously, for the Indians the most notable part of the return is Cal Quantrill. The 25-year old right-handed pitcher made his debut with the Padres in May of last year. To date, he has made 19 starts at the big league level and has pitched in a total of 33 games. In that span, Quantrill has a 4.79 ERA over 120 1/3 innings of work with a 8.0 K/9 rate.

In addition, the Indians are getting an MLB-ready outfielder in Josh Naylor to add to their outfield mix. All along, a focal point of any Clevinger trade was getting an outfielder back that could be immediately inserted into Cleveland’s lineup. Naylor has recorded 38 plate appearances so far this year and is batting .278/.316/.417.

Austin Hedges is another important part of this trade. After San Diego acquired Castro and Nola Sunday, it made Hedges expendable for other teams. He is a defensive-minded catcher behind the dish and that will pair nicely with Roberto Perez. This season, Hedges has thrown out 46% of runners which is way above the league average of 25% in that category.

Gabriel Arias is a 20-year old shortstop prospect. He has big bat skills, but does have questions when it comes to defensive ability. The other piece is Joey Cantillo. Cantillo is a starting-pitching prospect and has only pitched in Rookie and A Ball to this point. Last year, between Low-and-High A Ball, he posted a 2.26 ERA over 22 starts with 144 strikeouts and a 0.931 WHIP.

Finally, Owen Miller was another part of this trade. He was originally drafted by the Padres during the third round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

Final Thoughts

In the end, the Mike Clevinger derby has come to an end for the Cleveland Indians. As the deadline got closer, a trade involving Clevinger looked more and more likely. The Indians capitalized on their biggest trade chip with an impactful return. The best part for the Indians is that they acquired pieces to help keep their current competitive window open.

Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images

Chris Larson

Chris Larson

Hello Everyone! My name is Chris and I am aspiring to work in baseball someday as a professional writer or front office executive. Currently, I work in Human Resources and am attending graduate school for an MBA in Project Management. Outside of work and school, I am a student of the game of baseball, enjoy watching hockey and basketball, love writing, weight lifting and working out, listening to music, and reading about history and science related topics. Additionally, I am the founder and main admin of the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram group Baseball Fans of America.

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