The Guardians placed Ben Lively on the 15-day injured list before the start of tonight’s game against Milwaukee. Lively was diagnosed with a flexor tendon strain in his forearm (relayed by Tim Stebbins of MLB.com). Righty Zak Kent was recalled to take his active roster spot.
Lively started Monday’s series opener against the Brew Crew. He made it through three scoreless innings but exited during his warm-up throws before the start of the fourth. Cleveland initially announced that he was dealing with forearm inflammation, and it seems subsequent evaluation revealed the flexor strain. That makes it highly unlikely that he’ll be back when first eligible a couple weeks from now.
The 33-year-old Lively is in his second season with the Guardians. He signed for barely north of the league minimum going into 2024. It has proven a very shrewd pickup. Lively turned in a 3.81 ERA across 29 starts a year ago. He was unexpectedly tabbed as the Opening Day starter this season after an illness ruled Tanner Bibee out for that assignment. Lively didn’t have a great outing, surrendering three runs over five innings in Kansas City. However, he has been Cleveland’s best starting pitcher through the season’s first month and a half.
Lively owns a 3.22 ERA across 44 2/3 innings. He and Bibee are the only Cleveland starters allowing fewer than four earned runs per nine. He’s succeeding despite a pedestrian 16.3% strikeout rate. He doesn’t throw hard or miss many bats, but he has tossed nearly 200 innings with a combined 3.68 ERA since landing in Cleveland.
The Guardians are off on Thursday, so they can get by without a fifth starter into the early part of next week. Slade Cecconi, who has been out all season with an oblique strain, got up to 68 pitches in a rehab start with Triple-A Columbus on Sunday. He could step into Lively’s rotation spot if the Guards don’t want to recall Doug Nikhazy, who surrendered six runs in three innings in a spot start during his big league debut earlier this year.
Wow, apparently no one cares about Ben Lively and his flexor tendon.
Slade seems like the obvious replacement but wondering why Parker Messick isn’t an option?
Unless they have a permanent spot in the rotation, Messick seems like a longshot because he is not on the 40-man roster.
Alternatively, they could move Kolby Allard into the rotation.
I’d be okay giving Kolby a rotation shot
Time to call Cookie. I know he’s cooked but he can eat innings up
Clevinger is available, if you can entice him away from making more babies.
If by available you mean he is currently in the white Sox bullpen, then yeah, clevinger is available then…I guess…
He’s actually pitching poorly for Charlotte (AAA) right now.
Please, The answer is clearly
Trevor Bauer – can he get here this weekend? Cincinnati in town.
Yeah, I’d watch his first start back in the MLb no matter what team signs him.
It’s “MLB” not “the MLB!”