This afternoon, it was announced that White Sox starting pitcher Mike Clevinger will not face punishment from MLB for domestic violence and child abuse allegations that became public knowledge in January. This concludes a nearly nine-month investigation by the league that began in the summer of 2022.
The statement released by the MLB said as follows:
The White Sox released the following statement this afternoon:
Clevinger’s one-year, $12 million contract with the White Sox has been a talking point since the day the White Sox signed him. The team and Rick Hahn claimed that while they viewed Clevinger as a “calculated risk” due to previous immaturity displays, the White Sox were unaware of the allegations until the news broke in January.
Back in January, as you’ll remember, it was revealed via Brittany Grihol of The Athletic that Clevinger was 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.”
Clevinger’s response to MLB’s findings
Clevinger responded to MLB’s statement today by saying, “I am pleased that Major League Baseball has concluded its investigation. I had nothing to hide and cooperated fully with MLB. The situation has been stressful for me and my family, and I thank them for their strength and support”. He ended the statement by saying, “I am looking forward to the 2023 season and helping the White Sox win a championship this year.”
Previously, at the beginning of Spring Training, Rick Hahn and Mike Clevinger confirmed that before workouts began for the club in Glendale that Clevinger did in fact address his teammates about the allegations of domestic violence and child abuse that resulted in an investigation from MLB.
“I’ll keep the talk in the clubhouse, but I just wanted to share my sentiment to them about how bad I felt that this is how I’m starting out, this is how they’re meeting me, for a lot of guys who don’t know me. I didn’t want their first day at camp to be answering questions about this nonsense.”
Clevinger expressed that he was “pretty disappointed to have to start off this way” as part of his opening comments to the media. He later added: “This is pretty devastating to me and my family. And I know I feel terrible for all my teammates having to answer questions.”
Throughout the process, Clevinger maintained his innocence – though, no punishment via an MLB investigation is not the same as no legal punishment in a court of law.
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Featured Image: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
