Juan Brito’s injury-ravaged season has come to an early end, as the Guardians announced yesterday that the infield prospect would be undergoing surgery to fix his damaged left hamstring. The procedure has a recovery timeline of 8-12 weeks, so Brito should be ready for the start of Spring Training.
This marks the second major surgery of Brito’s 2025 campaign, as he missed close to two months recovering from thumb surgery. Returning to action with Triple-A Columbus near the end of June, he appeared in just eight more games with the Clippers before being sidelined again by a left hamstring strain. Brito had resumed baseball activities a few weeks ago, but seemingly with little progress, so the decision was made to fully address the injury with surgery.
Brito will conclude his season with just 31 games played — 24 in Triple-A ball, and seven on a rehab assignment with the Guardians’ rookie league affiliate. He still hit well (.256/.357/.463) over his 99 plate appearances in Columbus, yet that isn’t much consolation given that Brito posted similar numbers over a full Triple-A season in 2024, and looked set to make his big league debut this year.
There was even some chatter last spring about Brito potentially breaking camp with the Guardians and earning at least a platoon role at second base. Cleveland instead optioned him to Triple-A before Opening Day, and while Brito’s injuries perhaps made the team’s decision a moot point, the keystone has been a weak spot for the Guardians. The team’s second basemen (Daniel Schneemann, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martinez, Gabriel Arias, and Will Wilson) have combined for 0.6 bWAR, ranking the Guards 23rd of 30 teams in second base bWAR.
Going into 2026, the hope is that Brito (who turns 24 later this month) will be healthy and ready to rebound after his lost year. Acquired from the Rockies in the Nolan Jones trade three years ago, Brito has posted good offensive numbers during his rise up the ranks of Cleveland’s farm system. Evaluators aren’t sure if his glove necessarily plays anywhere, but even a bat-first type of infielder might help a Guardians team still struggling for consistent offense.
Brito has already exhausted his number of minor league option years, so for now, he’ll be officially out of options heading into 2026. Since the league can grant a fourth option year to players whose careers have been stalled by injury, however, it seems quite likely that Brito will get that bonus option given how little he played in 2025.
Turning to the top name in the Guards’ minor league system, Travis Bazzana may be facing another oblique issue. Bazzana was removed from Thursday’s Triple-A game due to left oblique soreness, and there hasn’t yet been an update on his status. This injury comes on the heels of a right oblique strain in May that ended up costing Bazzana a little over two months of the Double-A season.
The first overall pick of the 2024 draft has started his pro career in impressive fashion, already advancing to Triple-A ball and hitting .225/.420/.438 over his first 120 PA with Columbus. As much as some Cleveland fans were hoping Bazzana might provide the big league team with a boost during the playoff push, there probably wasn’t much chance the Guardians were going to call Bazzana up even before Thursday’s injury scare. That said, Bazzana’s quick rise through the minors has certainly put him on the radar for 2026, and he might now be the second base prospect under consideration for an Opening Day assignment.
Speaking of injury-marred seasons, Lane Thomas has played in only 39 games for the Guardians due to three different IL stints. The first IL trip was due to a bone bruise in his right wrist, and the latter two have been as a result of Thomas’ ongoing battle with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. The outfielder has been on the 10-day injured list since early July, and he played in three rehab games with Double-A Akron earlier in September before he was sidelined again with more foot soreness.
The next step might be surgery, as Thomas told The Athletic’s Zack Meisel and other reporters that he will speak with a foot specialist this coming week to decide on how to best treat the injury. Should Thomas go under the knife, he’d need a three-month recovery period. This timeline would leave him ready to go for the start of spring camp, yet a surgery would add another complication to what will already be a tricky ride through the free agent market for the 30-year-old.
It was less than two years ago that Thomas hit 28 homers as the everyday right fielder for the 2023 Nationals, but his production has dropped sharply since that career year. His bat particularly cooled off after he was dealt to the Guards at last year’s trade deadline, and his nightmare of a 2025 season has seen Thomas hit just .160/.246/.272 over 142 PA.
Teams will want to ensure Thomas is healthy before signing him to any sort of contract, so he’ll probably have to complete his rehab before his market gathers any kind of momentum. At best he’ll receive a one-year deal with a modest guaranteed salary, and it is certainly possible Thomas may have to settle for a minor league deal. Thomas told Meisel and company that he would welcome a return to Cleveland, and since the Guardians will be looking for outfield help anyway, the team might be open to bringing Thomas back on a low-cost deal.
“The first overall pick of the 2024 draft has started his pro career in impressive fashion, already advancing to Triple-A ball and hitting .225/.420/.438 over his first 120 PA with
Columbus”
“That said, Bazzana’s quick rise through the minors has certainly put him on the radar for 2026, and he might now be the second base prospect under consideration for an Opening Day assignment.”
What?
The college players picked around him are already in MLB. And those aren’t good numbers
A .420 on-base percentage is certainly a good number. The .225 average is probably just bad BABIP luck over such a small mumber of at bats.
His BABIP is inflated if anything
.322 across all levels this year
Statcast has him at 177/386/344 for xStats
Bazzana’s full season wRC+ between the upper minors this year is 136 when accounting for league and ballpark, so they’re actually very good numbers. I forgot we only look at batting average though.
And a lot of the college guys picked around him have made it to the majors, but that’s not really his fault considering the time he missed with injury and the fact that the Guardians are slow to promote guys anyway. Kurtz is the outlier though, as Christian Moore already got optioned back and Caglianone has generally been pretty bad. This is why draft classes aren’t evaluated after a year.
My point is more that the article is acting like he’s been fast tracked. Not so much the numbers
I’m not sure how ‘good numbers’ should be measured.
Bazzana’s wRC+ at three levels…
A+…126
AA…135
AAA..138
Combined with a swinging strike rate that hovers around 7.5%.
And chase rates under 17% with overall contact rates around 80%.
Those look like very good numbers to me.
Inflated by an absurdly high walk rate and possibly high BABIP
You didn’t draft a guy #1 overall to SLG .424. really don’t care what wRC+ says. There’s guys 3 years younger than him in double A
And statcast has his triple a expected splits at .177/386/344
“Oh come on, we drafted a guy with plate discipline and he has an absurdly high walk rate. This guy sucks.” See how dumb that sounds?
In year one of his pro career, you’re doing a lot of cherry-picking and bad faith arguments to try to paint him as a bad player. There are guys older than him in AA and AAA too, so what’s your point?
Replying to every comment isn’t gonna help your argument. He definitely might not be the best player in the class (and as a Guardians fan, I actually wanted Condon at the time), but you’re trying way too hard here.
I’m sorry for replying to the people who replied to me.
And I’m really not
I’m not even saying he’s bad
But look at that tone of the likely AI written article. That’s the point
AI written article? You just lost all credibility, since you clearly don’t pay attention to Mark P’s chats.
Muted.
Try next year mid june travis will be the starting center fielder.
That’s a total of 5 other players, and three of them have negative bWARs. Kurtz is the only one out-performing. Bazzana’s minor league numbers are terrific.
How are they terrific?
if you really just want to use “wRC+”, he’s about the same as Gabriel Arias was in triple A last year. At the same age
Where do you get this stuff?
Bazzana is 23 and in just his second year of pro ball. Arias was 24 last year and in his seventh year of pro ball.
And I didn’t mention merely wRC+ as a measuring stick. I mentioned chase rates contact rates and swinging strike rates.
I will gladly help you out.
Chase rate at AAA…
Arias 39.1%
Bazz 16.5%
Contact…
Arias 70.4%
Bazz. 76.9%
SwStr…
Arias 17.2%
Bazz 8.4%
Bazzana swings at HALF the pitches out of the zone that Arias does. Arias misses TWICE as many pitches in the zone that Bazzana does.
If you can’t see the difference between the two, nobody on this site can help you.
And if you want to continue to denigrate Bazzana as a prospect, for goodness sakes, find a better comparison than Gabriel freaking Arias.
Ok. So Bazzana doesn’t chase pitches, yet still strikes out nearly 27% of the time.
Maybe that explains his walk rate too. He doesn’t swing and doesn’t make anything happen
How is that hello your argument?
While I thought he was a bit of a reach at the overall 1/1, I base my conclusion on his 32/29 K/W in AAA, with 4 HRs in 89 ABs. That’s 27/600ABs for context.
And, FWIW, as a RS fan, I am very pleased with Arias’ progress.
Bazzana seems to strike out a lot.
He does have a high walk rate, because he doesn’t swing at pitches not in the zone, which, the last time I looked, is a very good thing. This is the first time I’ve seen anybody complain about a player not swinging at pitches not in the zone.
When in AA, Bazzana was 1.5 years younger than the average player. In AAA, he is 4.3 years younger. He reached AAA a year after being drafted. Had he not gotten hurt, he would have reached MLB not much more than a year after being drafted.
And his BABIP is hardly out of line.
BTW, the average SLG in MLB is .404. The average OBP is .316. I’d much prefer high OBP than SLG.
But if you don’t like him, that’s OK.
We will see in a year or two…IF he can stay healthy. Health, not production, has been his problem.
What the others are saying and I agree, it’s impossible not to look at Bazzana outside of where he was drafted — at #1 overall. While I think he’ll be okay he looks and hits a bit too much like Jason Kipnis to get me REALLY excited. Kip btw had a career slg # of .416, .450 in his best years but .482 in the minors. We’ve heard Bazzana’s not exactly a marvel in the field like Kipnis, so he does appear over drafted.
That said opening day 2026 2B had better be either Bazzana or Brito. Guards need the offense and either are an improvement over what they have. Move Rocchio to SS.
If Bazzana ends up being a healthy version of Kipnis, he will definitely be a fine first round pick.
Kipnis was a healthy version of himself. If Bazzana is healthy and is no better than Kipnis he’ll be like I said okay but hardly what you dream on in a 1/1. The power of Kurtz or the 15 K per 9 velo of Chase Burns or the power MI package of Konnor Griffin, those you dream on. Not Kipnis, he’s more fitting for a late first rd pick. Even the hit tool of JJ Wetherholdt combined with his ability to play SS makes for a more fitting 1/1. I hope I’m wrong and the power he showed in his last collegiate year, not the first two, shines through again.
Kipnis was seldom fully healthy. Perhaps his biggest problem was that he refused to sit.
I’d absolutely take 4+ fWAR per year from Bazzana over his six years of control.
Still, you are make definitive judgements on the careers of kids who were drafted one year ago.
It’s a good thing the 40 slot for Bazzana needn’t be used up yet because one middle infielder I’d like one more year to look at is Milan Tolentino. He’s a pure platoon bat but a strong side one and this year he’s been dynamite in AAA. 20 HRs .510 slg, an .855 ops vs RHP, terrible vs lefties. Team him with Angel Martinez and it’s a workable combo if any of that ability plays at the next level. Always the big if.
Of course it comes with a 33% K rate from that side too but hey, nobody’s perfect. It’s why I want another year to look. The power is enticing, the fielding said to be good, reasonably error free at least. I wonder if the Gaurds’ll bother to protect him. The Rays like Carson Williams big K total and all.
Yes on Milan Tolentino!
I might be biased, I got to watch his Dad play AAA ball with the Tucson Toros.
He’s definitely streaky it seems but has sneaky power.
And I love Angel Martinez. He brings great energy and I could see him continue to improve.
Cool, a fellow fan, I’ll take them for any reason. I looked up his dad Jose, just 59 PA at age 30 but if you’re doomed to never play MLB than the PCL is a sweet substitute. But c’mon Milan, make a bigger splash, make daddy proud. The Hawaiian Islanders of the PCL, that’s one I forgot, no offense to Tuscan (I lived in Phoenix for 3 years) that would have been my PCL landing spot back then.
Phoenix Firebirds, Portland Trappers, Tucson Toros, Albuquerque Dukes had some of the best logos, Unis.