Signed by the Cleveland Guardians as a free agent during the off-season, 32-year-old Ben Lively ... [+]
Everything considered, this Cleveland Guardians season could have been doomed before it even started.
Instead, the Guardians have flourished instead of flopped.
They have done so because few, if any organizations are as good as Cleveland when it comes to scouting, acquiring, and developing pitchers. Case in point: two of Cleveland’s last four Cy Young Award winners - Cliff Lee, and Corey Kluber - were plucked out of the minor league systems of other teams.
The Guardians’ last home-grown Cy Young winner was Shane Bieber, whose 2024 season abruptly ended after just two starts, due to Tommy John surgery.
That was the biggest blow in a series of spring-training, or pre-spring training injuries to Cleveland pitchers, both starters and relievers, that threatened to torpedo the Guardians’ season before it even began.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Guardians officials have plenty of experience when it comes to dealing with injury-riddled pitching staffs, regardless of when the injuries occur.
The 2024 season may have been the biggest challenge yet. President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti and General Manager Mike Chernoff, and their staffs, spent most of the spring scrambling for options and alternatives to plug into an injured pitching staff.
Indeed, at one point near the end of training camp, Antonetti, in a zoom call with reporters, ran through a litany of injuries to multiple pitchers who would begin the season on the injured list.
When the dust had settled, sort of, following the loss of Bieber in the first week of the season, the Guardians were without four of their five starters from the 2023 season: Bieber, Cal Quantrill (traded to Colorado over the winter), Gavin Williams (elbow injury suffered in spring training), and Aaron Civale (traded to Tampa Bay at last year’s trade deadline).
Guardians officials had already spent much of last year’s off-season searching for more pitching depth, but with all the spring training injuries – the relievers were particularly hard hit – the focus quickly shifted to a hunt for both starters and relievers.
The results of that search, during the offseason and in spring training, may have saved the Guardians’ season.
Consider the fact that so far this year Cleveland has used 20 pitchers, both starters and relievers, and only four of them have a losing record. Many of those pitchers were not even with Cleveland last season. But some of them quickly ascended into key roles this year.
At the top of that list is 32-year-old Ben Lively, who was selected by Cleveland in the 26th round of the 2013 MLB draft, but did not sign. Over the next 12 years he played in the Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati organizations, plus three years in Korea.
The Guardians signed Lively as a free agent last December, and it was he who assumed Bieber’s spot in the Guardians’ rotation, one week into the 2024 season. In 12 starts Lively has a record of 7-3 and a 3.03 ERA which is the best of the team’s starters.
Lively has brought some stability to the rotation, while the bullpen received a boost from three other additions, Cade Smith (3-1, 1.96 ERA), who signed with Cleveland as an amateur free agent in 2020, Scott Barlow (2-2, 3.58), who the Guardians acquired in a trade with San Diego in 2023, and Hunter Gaddis (3-2, 1.47), a fifth-round pick by Cleveland in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft.
More impressive still, Lively, Smith, and Barlow were not in the Cleveland organization last year. But this year all three have become key contributors to the Guardians’ pitching staff.
All the new additions, plus a few holdovers from last year, have pitched well enough to give Manager Stephen Vogt quality alternatives in his bullpen – which, amazingly, given all the injuries, is the No.1 ranked bullpen in the league - to the point at which, in some cases it has been relievers relieving relievers.
That group includes left-handed relievers Tim Herrin (3-0, 1.13 ERA) and Sam Hentges (a 2.55 ERA in 18 appearances), and right-hander Pedro Avila (2.40 ERA in 16 appearances).
The anchor of Cleveland’s bullpen has been closer Emmanuel Clase, who has been virtually untouchable: a record of 3-1, a 0.70 ERA, a .159 opponents’ batting average, and a league-leading 25 saves.
The final piece to the puzzle will be the return of injured reliever Nick Sandlin, who in 33 appearances is 5-0 with a 3.49 ERA.
In the meantime, the makeshift rotation is led by Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen, and Lively, who have a combined record of 21-8. The good news is that Williams, who was very impressive in his rookie season a year ago – 81 strikeouts in 82 innings while holding opposing hitters to a .219 batting average – is expected to come off the injured list sometime soon.
So not only have the Guardians weathered a pitching storm, they have out-run it. They did so during the off-season when they stockpiled pitchers in case of an emergency. When the emergency arrived, so did the reinforcements – which may have saved the Guardians’ season.