One in all MLB’s greatest issues, and it spreads to different leagues as properly, is the quantity of buck-passing that appears to happen when there’s a critical situation. Each time there’s somebody like Mike Clevinger being investigated for home abuse or one thing else terrible, a group is ready for the league to behave, and the league typically leaves it to the group. And nothing occurs. We noticed it initially with Trevor Bauer, which ought to have been straightforward for everybody. Bauer was nonetheless an energetic member of the group and Dave Roberts was going to ship him out to pitch even after information of his alleged misconduct broke — [Editor’s word: Bauer has denied the allegations] earlier than MLB stepped in, in a uncommon occasion of the league coming to its senses. However rather more usually everybody simply stares at one another and followers are left to cope with the participant being omnipresent.
Clevinger continues to be underneath investigation by MLB for violating the league’s home abuse coverage, which has gone on for some seven months. Clevinger has denied any wrongdoing and has requested that everybody “wait earlier than they rush to judgment.” MLB dragging its toes to the diploma of lighting their sneakers on hearth left the White Sox to do something, which they declined as a result of they assumed MLB would? It wasn’t clear. GM Rick Hahn addressed the media upon Clevinger’s arrival, and he actually didn’t assist a lot.
As reported in The Athletic:
“We’ve talked about methods to enhance our background interviews,” mentioned Hahn, who detailed a listing {of professional} contacts the Sox sometimes communicate to of their vetting course of. “Some questions that maybe would lead down different paths that weren’t requested. However once more, I feel it must be clear underneath the phrases of this coverage, there was no manner for us to have identified this details about an open investigation relationship again to the center of final season.”
In an ESPN article on Clevinger, White Sox GM Rick Hahn mentioned the group’s “solely choice” was to permit the pitcher to return to camp whereas ready for MLB to conclude its inquiry.
“It’s solely the discretion of the commissioner to self-discipline a participant on the conclusion of an investigation,” Hahn mentioned. “[The] confidentiality ingredient of the investigation is important to the success and power of the coverage and one we’ll proceed to respect.”
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It could appear to most that should you’re involved about “maturity points” for a participant who’s 32, and one that everybody is aware of was the jackwagon that violated COVID protocols two years in the past and had his Cleveland teammates fortunately toss him underneath no matter bus they may discover, you possibly can most likely simply stamp a “PASS” on his portfolio and transfer on to another person to fill out the underside of your rotation. Hahn was caught between claiming to not know concerning the investigation whereas additionally admitting that he knew Clevinger was a dolt, neither of which accomplishes no matter he got down to in his presser.
This all comes on the heels of when the Sox employed Tony La Russa two years in the past to be the supervisor regardless that they knew, however we didn’t, that he had been arrested for a DUI for the second time earlier than his hiring. (La Russa pled out to a diminished cost of reckless driving.) This time the Sox determined to pivot to only being silly as a substitute of deliberately ignorant, cussed, and evil.
It positively felt that the Sox by no means thought MLB would permit Clevinger to report back to camp, and had been left holding the bag when he did. They’re most likely proper in that whereas he’s underneath investigation the league shouldn’t have let him be anyplace the place anybody can see him. However that doesn’t imply the Sox couldn’t, even when it meant a battle with the union. They may at the very least have had some kind of plan. Somebody needed to act, and nobody did. Which gave Clevinger a bullhorn of his personal, which he ought to by no means have.
So who wins out of this? The Sox don’t, as a result of their followers have this piece of shit in spring coaching. The league doesn’t, as a result of they appear balloon-handed. The followers actually don’t, as a result of they’ve Clevinger on their group. Solely Clevinger, who’s the one man who shouldn’t be successful, wins.
The Sox didn’t have a plan, as a result of they didn’t suppose they wanted one. Both they didn’t do their homework, or they did and thought nobody would discover, or they had been caught chilly by MLB first by not figuring out concerning the investigation after which by the league’s lack of motion. Possibly you could possibly excuse the primary, however you possibly can’t excuse the second. Being dumb isn’t an excuse for doing the fallacious factor.
