Bernstein blasts White Sox for bringing back Mike Clevinger: 'What are you doing?'

(670 The Score) Score midday hosts Dan Bernstein and Laurence Holmes don’t understand why the White Sox brought back right-hander Mike Clevinger on a one-year deal.

Bernstein was downright enraged, pointing to the domestic violence allegations against Clevinger that led to an MLB investigation in 2023 and also Clevinger wearing out his welcome elsewhere, such as Cleveland. MLB didn't discipline Clevinger after its investigation, though he agreed to voluntarily submit to evaluations by MLB and MLB Players Association joint treatment boards that cover domestic violence and drugs of abuse.

Clevinger, 33, had a 3.77 ERA in 24 starts for the White Sox in 2023 but went unsigned this offseason until reaching a deal with Chicago on Monday.

“The hell, man?” Bernstein said on his show Tuesday. “What are you doing? To what end? I want to hear the meeting. I want to hear everybody in the room, ‘Hey, you know what we need? Instead of losing 102 games, we sign this scumbag and maybe we only lose 100 games.’”

Bernstein and Holmes both pointed out that beyond Clevinger’s off-the-field troubles, his return doesn’t make sense for a rebuilding White Sox team that needs to develop young talent and foster a good culture for those players to grow.

In Holmes’ mind, the White Sox would’ve been better off keeping right-hander Michael Kopech in the rotation than moving him to the bullpen and then signing Clevinger.

“I’m not sure what it serves,” Holmes said of Clevinger’s addition before landing on a depressing answer.

“They know that they’re just going to need pitchers, and here’s a pitcher that they know can eat innings and they’re just going to bring him in and let him eat innings. But if you’re trying to convince people that you’re evolving as an organization, I don’t think this does it.”

It sure didn’t convince Bernstein.

“There’s a reason no other MLB team signed him, because they didn’t want him around,” Bernstein said.