The Padres have announced that right-hander Mike Clevinger has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right triceps strain, retroactive to May 21. Fellow righty Steven Wilson have been recalled from Triple-A El Paso to take his place on the active roster.
Clevinger, 31, just recently returned from missing the entire 2021 campaign due to Tommy John surgery and will now head back to the injured list after just three starts. He threw 14 innings over those games with a 3.21 ERA, 25.4% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 46.2% ground ball rate. The righty’s most recent outing was his best, as Clevinger allowed just one hit over five shutout innings in a 3-0 victory over the Phillies on May 17.
The Padres didn’t provide a timeline for Clevinger’s absence, so the severity of the strain isn’t yet known. If there is any silver lining, it’s that Clevinger didn’t suffer any damage to his elbow or forearm, though another type of arm injury is naturally a concern. Clevinger’s 2022 debut was also delayed by a knee problem that developed during Spring Training.
Of all the teams in baseball, the Padres are perhaps best positioned to withstand an injury to their starting pitching corps, as they currently have a rotation surplus. Even without Clevinger in the mix, the club has Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Sean Manaea, Blake Snell, MacKenzie Gore and Nick Martinez as options for starting pitching duty. There had been speculation how San Diego would juggle all of these arms, and yet as is so often the case, injuries tend to eat into any perceived rotation surplus.
