Way, way, way back in the day, the good folks in the Red Reporter blogosphere combined to place RHP Ben Lively at #10 in their Community Prospect Rankings, noting the former 4th round pick of the Cincinnati Reds boasted a four-pitch arsenal that could find him in the middle of the team’s rotation at some point.
While the route to that possibility has been much more circuitous than we ever could have envisioned some eight years ago, the news of the day on Thursday again opened that possibility. The Reds themselves announced on Twitter that they’ve signed Lively, now 29, to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training (should it ever commence).