The San Diego Padres on Wednesday placed right-handed starter Mike Clevinger on the 15-day injured list because of an illness. Most critically, this means Clevinger may miss the upcoming best-of-three Wild Card Series against the New York Mets. Manager Bob Melvin on Tuesday suggested to reporters that Clevinger would not receive a start in the wild-card round. However, he presumably would've been in the bullpen mix and could've filled a perhaps critical multi-inning relief role.
In terms of rotation against the Mets, the Padres figure to go with Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Blake Snell in some yet-to-be-determined order. The Wild Card Series begins on Friday night in New York.
Clevinger had been slated to make an abbreviated start on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants, but instead right-hander Nabil Crissmat, who was called up from Triple-A El Paso in a corresponding move, will make the start.
This season, Clevinger, 31, has pitched to a 4.33 ERA (86 ERA+) in 114 13/3 innings with a 2.60 K/BB ratio. In terms of run prevention and success at the command-and-control level, those numbers are shy of his usual standards. Earlier this season, Clevinger missed time with knee and triceps injuries and also spent time on the IL because of COVID-19.
