NEWSLETTER
Chicago White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger, 32, is under investigation from Major League Baseball after allegations of domestic violence and child abuse.
Brittany Ghiroli and Katie Strang have the full story at The Athletic, but here is the main takeaway from the report.
Olivia Finestead, the 24-year-old mother of Clevinger’s child, told The Athletic on Tuesday that she has been in contact with individuals from MLB’s Department of Investigations since this summer. According to Finestead, she has detailed to those investigators incidents of physical, verbal and emotional abuse, including an incident from last June in which Finestead said Clevinger choked her, and another about two weeks later when she said Clevinger slapped her in a hotel room when the team was playing the Dodgers and threw used chewing tobacco on their child.
Obviously, these are horrific allegations, so I’m glad to see MLB is taking it seriously. For what it’s worth, the White Sox were reportedly unaware of these allegations at the time of signing Clevinger this offseason (one-year, $12M). Indeed, while Finestead obviously made her comments available to The Athletic, she also only just shared the news in an Instagram Story earlier this morning: “I hope the @MLB does what they should and puts him in required therapy maybe even a small suspensions (sic) so he can take time out to really think about why he abuses his kids and their mothers.”
According to sources at The Athletic, MLB has opened an official investigation into this matter. As of now, Clevinger hasn’t released a statement personally, but his attorney shared the following on his behalf: “We need to fairly and thoroughly protect our client and at the same time be respectful of the White Sox and MLB. We need time before responding.”
As a reminder, MLB does not need Clevinger to be found criminally liable to levy any discipline if the results of their investigation warrant punishment. And while the Padres released a nothingburger statement noting their awareness of these allegations, here’s what MLB had to say (again, via The Athletic):
“Major League Baseball and the Chicago White Sox take any and all allegations very seriously, and the White Sox are completely supportive of the Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy shared by MLB and the MLBPA,” the team said in a statement issued to The Athletic. “MLB opened an investigation after learning of these allegations. The White Sox were not aware of the allegations or the investigation at the time of his signing. The White Sox will refrain from comment until MLB’s investigative process has reached its conclusion.”
We’ll update this story as soon as we learn more.
