Who Is Newest Guardians Pitcher Ben Lively?

The Cleveland Guardians boost their pitching depth by signing RHP Ben Lively to a major league contract.

Depth is important for any team whether they're in a rebuild or contending for a World Series. You can never have too much of something. That especially applies to pitching when talking about baseball.

Considering this, the Cleveland Guardians made a depth move on Tuesday afternoon and signed RHP Ben Lively to a one-year, major league contract.

Who is this new pitcher on Cleveland's staff?

Jul 16, 2023; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Ben Lively (59) throws against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports / © David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

The Guardians will be Lively's fifth major league team since he debuted in 2017. He was originally the 135th overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Cincinnati Reds but made his first big league appearance with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The right-handed pitcher owns a career ERA of 5.05 and a WHIP of 1.36. Lively finished last season with an ERA of 5.38 while finishing in the 78th percentile in BB%.

His best pitch is easily his slider which was thrown 23.5% of the time. This pitch has an opponent batting average of .169, a Whiff% of 33.3%, and a total run value of +5, per Baseball Savant. However, the same can't be said for his four-seam fastball which had a run value of -11.

Will he be closing games for Cleveland in the summer of 2024? Probably not, but that doesn't mean he won't be an important piece to Cleveland's bullpen.

The Guardians learned last season that it's important to have a long reliever who can save the bullpen if the team is up or down by a lot of runs. Xzavion Curry was praised countless times for doing this last season, but Livley could now take over this role if Cleveland plans to use Curry in a different spot.

Lively pitched in 19 games last season and started in 12 of those. Of those 19 games,  he also pitched 5.0 or more innings of work in nine of them. If anything, Livley could be an innings eater and there certainly is some value in that.

The way Cleveland's rotation is currently structured, it's hard to envision Livley starting any games unless a trade or unforeseen injury hits any of the current starters. However, he does possess the experience to contribute to the Guardians.