Cleveland Indians: Determining Mike Clevinger’s role in 2018

Mike Clevinger had a breakout year for the Cleveland Indians in 2017. Now with a fully healthy staff, how will the team utilize him in 2018?

When Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber went down in May 2017, a feeling of doom seemed to trickle over Indians fans. After all, how can you replace a now two-time Cy Young Award winner?

Enter Mike Clevinger. Now this is not to say Mike Clevinger could replace Corey Kluber. No one can do that right now. But Clevinger earned his place in the rotation in 2017 and stayed in it for the rest of the season.

I’ve said before that I think Clev should be in the rotation in 2018. Perhaps even the fourth man in the rotation. Yes I know that he was used (barely) in relief in the postseason, but that is not where he belongs. That was with the shortened playoff roster and the need to have bullpen arms ready.

A look at his stats from 2017 shows how well he fits in the Indians rotation. According to Brooks Baseball, Clevinger’s breaking balls had an average whiff percentage of 24.07 percent. That is vastly better than teammate John Tomlin‘s 15.30 percent.

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Clevinger also had an ERA of 0.99 in the month of September. That stat also trumps the old “teams are starting to figure him out” narrative, as it was by far his best month of the season.

Another interesting stat was Clevinger’s performance under pressure. Players were only batting .190 against him with runners in scoring position, better than Kluber’s .228 average.

Clevinger’s biggest weakness in 2017 was his control. He would often struggle to find the strike zone early in games and allowed an average of 4.4 walks per nine innings.

But with 12 strikeouts per nine innings during the home stretch of the season you would think he would have a permanent home in the rotation.

The bottom line is, Clevinger should  have a permanent home in the Indians rotation. However, we can’t ignore the fact that 2017 pitching coach Mickey Callaway has moved on. The new pitching coach, Carl Willis, may have other plans in mind for the long-haired fan favorite.

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But Clevinger made his argument. He should be a starting pitcher, and with so much time on his contract he should remain in the Indians rotation for a long time.