3 Reasons why the Cleveland Indians should not have brought back Mike Clevinger at all

The Cleveland Indians have recalled Mike Clevinger and will start him on Wednesday.

The Cleveland Indians have officially recalled Mike Clevinger from their alternate site in Eastlake, home of the Lake County Captains late on Tuesday evening. The Indians have already announced the 29-year-old will start on Wednesday, this after only a few weeks away from the club.

Clevinger and Zach Plesac broke team and league rules when they went out to party while in Chicago earlier this season. Plesac was caught when he tried to return to the team hotel, while Clevinger did not. Plesac was sent home in a private car the following morning. Later on that same day, Clevinger defended Plesac in a team meeting, making excuses for the pitcher while potentially exposing teammates and coaches. Clevinger then flew home with the team. It was only later the team and players would find out the truth, that Clevinger had been out and about with Plesac while in Chicago. Clevinger didn’t even apologize when caught, and instead posted a cleverly worded message where he avoided taking responsibility for his actions. He also blamed his “not understanding of the protocols” as the reason this happened. Not his own sheer selfishness.

Now Clevinger is back with no real punishment being handed down. This can only add to the problems this team has had throughout the year thus far and it wouldn’t be surprising to see problems boil up from this decesion.

These are three reasons why the team should not have brought back Clevinger.

The team needs offense help and Clevinger is a good trade chip.

Even without the fact that he’s a bad teammate, Clevinger would still be on the trade block this year. He’s up for arbitration this year, and considering the fact he’s almost 30 and has put in some good years, it’s likely an arbitrator would side with him in a big-money situation. Shipping Clevinger off for offense help would be an easy way to avoid paying an aging pitcher, while still getting the most from him in a trade.

He’s not good enough to risk destroying the team chemistry for.

The team is getting by on its depth. The pitching is deep enough without Clevinger and Plesac in the lineup, but to risk others opting out of the year for a third and fifth starter makes no real sense. Even if no one opts out, there’s not going to be a lot of hand-holding when he returns. He wasn’t sent home from Detroit because Chris Antonetti thought it was a good idea, Clevinger and Plesac were sent home because the team demanded it. Do you think the team just forgot that Clevinger lied to them and put everyone, including their ailing manager at risk for a few beers and trading cards (so Plesac claims)? That’s too much to risk.

He can’t be trusted.

He released an apology without saying he was sorry. He lied to his teammates to cover his own butt while leaving his supposed best friend out to dry. He knowingly and willfully endangered his teammates and coaches. He’s also about to turn 30. He’s not a kid. He’s a grown man who can’t take responsibility for his actions. He’s a grown man afraid of being caught for making decisions that he knew were against the rules. He doesn’t think the rules are fair, he doesn’t think he did anything wrong and he doesn’t care that he betrayed his teammates. If you don’t think Clevinger is capable of doing this all over again, I have some beachfront property in South Dakota to sell you.