To the disappointment of most fans, The White Sox chose to stand pat at the trade deadline this year. While many wanted the team to make a move for starting pitching, the team felt like it didn’t need to bring in major additions to the first-place club. However, one pitcher desperately wanted to play for the White Sox: The new Padre Mike Clevinger.
How do we know this?
On the White Sox Talk Podcast, hosted by Chuck Garfein, Vinnie Duber, and Ryan McGuffey, Garfein said he had a source that said Tim Anderson personally called Clevinger to discuss the possibility of being teammates. McGuffey followed up by saying a different source of his said the same thing.
Now obviously Clevinger wasn’t a free agent so it wasn’t his choice to decide where he was traded to, but it still shows that star players around the league are noticing what’s going down on the South Side. It’s becoming an attractive place to play due to the young core, and the fact that they’re a very good team and will be for the foreseeable future.
It was always going to cost a lot for the White Sox to land Clevinger in a trade, especially since it would be a deal between division rivals. But it’s satisfying to know that he wanted to come play in Chicago. Maybe some free agents-to-be are having the same thoughts.
