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Juan Brito

Juan Brito To Miss 8 To 12 Weeks Due To Thumb Surgery

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Guardians infielder Juan Brito underwent surgery today on his right thumb to address a high-grade ligament sprain and is expected to miss 8 to 12 weeks. Tim Stebbins of MLB.com was among those to relay the news and noted that Brito suffered the injury sliding into third base last Thursday. Brito is on the 40-man roster but on optional assignment. He will likely be placed on the minor league injured list. The club could recall him and place him on the major league 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot, but doing so would mean giving Brito major league pay and service time.

Brito, 23, was acquired from the Rockies in the November 2022 trade which sent Nolan Jones to Colorado. Brito was added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster at the time of that trade. Jones later came back to the Guardians last month in the swap that sent Tyler Freeman to the mountains.

Not that there’s ever a good time to have surgery and miss several months, but this is perhaps an especially unfortunate time for Brito to be out of action. He is in his final option year, meaning he’ll be out of options in 2026, though it’s possible the Guardians would eventually be granted a fourth option. A player is eligible for a fourth option if they have exhausted the first three and still have less than five “full seasons”. A full season is defined as one in which the player was active in the majors or minors for at least 90 days. It appears that Brito didn’t have his first “full season” until 2022, so he would only have four seasons even if he heals up in time to hit 90 days here in 2025.

Still, option status aside, 2025 was perhaps Brito’s best chance to playing time in Cleveland since he’s primarily a second baseman. The Guardians opened up playing time at that spot by trading Andrés Giménez to the Blue Jays in the winter. In the long run, prospect Travis Bazzana likely has a claim to that job, but not immediately. He came into 2025 with just 27 games at High-A as the extent of his professional experience. He has added 16 Double-A games so far this year.

Brito has always put up good numbers in the minors but hasn’t yet been called up to the big leagues. A switch-hitter, he has shown good plate discipline skills, often walking almost as much as he strikes out. He can also provide a bit of pop and speed. Since the start of 2024, he has appeared in 160 Triple-A games. In that time, he has 17 stolen bases, 23 home runs, a 13.7% walk rate and a 15.9% strikeout rate. His .259/.369/.447 batting line leads to a wRC+ of 117. FanGraphs ranked him as the #78 prospect in all of baseball coming into this year.

Defensively, he has played all over the infield and a bit of right field. However, he’s not considered especially strong in terms of his glovework, despite that versatility. This year, he’s been kept at second and first base so far.

For now, Brito will be focused on rehabbing his thumb. It will be interesting to see where he stands when he gets back. The Guards have been splitting their second base playing time between Gabriel Arias and Daniel Schneemann, who are both playing well. Arias has a .270/.321/.486 line and 133 wRC+ while Schneemann is at .229/.308/.457 and a 123 wRC+. Bazzana is hitting well at Double-A and it’s possible he could move to Triple-A or even the majors this year.

For the Guards, they will have a bit less infield depth for the coming weeks, though they already have a number of infielders on the active roster. They have José Ramírez and Brayan Rocchio as their regulars at third and shortstop. Kyle Manzardo and Carlos Santana are sharing first base and the designated hitter spot. As mentioned, Arias and Schneemann are covering second. Will Wilson is also on the roster as a bench infieler. Utility guy Ángel Martínez is currently covering center field while Lane Thomas is injured, but he’s capable of playing on the dirt as well.

If another injury pops up, the healthy position players on the 40-man but not on the active roster are outfielders Will Brennan, Petey Halpin and Johnathan Rodríguez. If an infielder gets hurt in the next few months, perhaps the club would bring up one of those outfielders and have Martínez move to the infield. Or perhaps Bazzana will be in Triple-A and knocking on the door by then.

Photo courtesy of Samantha Madar, Imagn Images

Guardians Option Juan Brito

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The Guardians optioned second baseman Juan Brito and outfielders Angel Martínez and Johnathan Rodríguez to Triple-A Columbus. It’s most notable regarding Brito, who entered camp with a good chance to secure the second base job.

Cleveland created a hole at the position when they dealt Andrés Giménez to Toronto to offload the nearly $100MM remaining on his contract. Last year’s first overall pick Travis Bazzana is the expected long-term answer. He hasn’t gotten beyond High-A, so he’s unlikely to be a factor before the second half at the earliest.

The 23-year-old Brito was a much more realistic candidate to break camp. He’s been on the 40-man roster since the Guardians swapped Nolan Jones to Colorado to acquire him during the 2022-23 offseason. Brito spent all of last season on optional assignment to Triple-A Columbus. He hit .256/.365/.443 with a robust 13.5% walk rate against a modest 16.1% strikeout percentage. He popped 21 homers and stole 13 bases.

Brito doesn’t have huge physical tools, but the well-rounded offensive profile and ability to play in the middle of the diamond landed him among the league’s Top 100 prospects at FanGraphs. The switch-hitter had a bizarre Spring Training. He hit four home runs in 39 trips to the plate, but those accounted for all but three of his total hits. He hit .189 with a .231 on-base percentage that wasn’t enough to grab an Opening Day job.

The Guardians will seemingly go with a combination of Tyler Freeman, Daniel Schneemann and potentially Gabriel Arias at the keystone. The righty-hitting Freeman owns a modest .223/.304/.329 slash in parts of three seasons, but he’s been on fire this spring (.278/.381/.583 in 14 games). Schneemann, a lefty bat, hit .218/.303/.368 in 73 games as a 27-year-old rookie last season. He’s also had a big showing in camp (.265/.342/.559 over 14 contests). Schneemann has moved all around the infield and outfield and only logged 59 innings at second base between Triple-A and the majors last year.

Arias is out of options and needs to make the team or be exposed to waivers. The 25-year-old utilityman has hit a couple homers this spring but has only a .275 OBP in 15 games. His plate discipline has been a major problem over his three big league seasons. He’s a .212/.274/.350 hitter with a 32.3% strikeout rate over 563 plate appearances.

Rockies Acquire Nolan Jones From Guardians

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The Guardians have traded infielder Nolan Jones to the Rockies for infield prospect Juan Brito, according to an announcement from Cleveland. It’s an out-of-the-blue swap of talented young players.

Jones, a former second-round pick, appeared among Baseball America’s list of the game’s top 100 prospects each season from 2019-21. He consistently put up quality numbers in the minor leagues, posting some of the game’s highest walk rates to run top-tier on-base marks. Jones struggled a bit during his first crack at Triple-A in 2021 but still entered this year among BA’s top ten Cleveland prospects.

The 24-year-old started the season back at Triple-A, but he performed better in his second go-around at the level. In 248 plate appearances, he put up a .276/.368/.463 line with nine home runs. The Guardians called him up for the first time in July, and he picked up his first 92 big league trips to the plate. Jones hit only .244/.309/.372 while striking out a third of the time in that limited look, but there’s still plenty to be intrigued about in his long-term profile.

Jones owns a .252/.361/.443 mark across 655 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He’s walked in 13.7% of his trips to the dish there while connecting on 22 home runs and 36 doubles. A lofty 28.4% strikeout rate leads to some questions about his bat-to-ball skills, but the combination of power and plate discipline makes him an intriguing addition for the Rox.

The Philadelphia native came up as a third baseman, although he increasingly saw more action in the corner outfield this year. Prospect evaluators have long suggested he could be an adequate defender at the hot corner, but the position was obviously spoken for long-term in Cleveland by José Ramírez. The Rockies already have a franchise third baseman of their own — albeit not one of Ramírez’s caliber — in Ryan McMahon. With McMahon playing elite defense at the hot corner, Jones will probably factor more immediately into the corner outfield and designated hitter mix. The Rockies have Charlie Blackmon for another year to split time between right field and DH, while Kris Bryant will hopefully stay healthy and lock down left field. C.J. Cron is the presumptive starter at first base, but Colorado can rotate Jones’ left-handed bat into the mix alongside Cron while also keeping Blackmon off his feet more often.

Turning to Cleveland’s end of the swap, they land an interesting lower-level prospect from an improving Colorado farm system. Brito, who recently turned 21, spent the entire 2022 season in Low-A. He hit .286/.407/.470 with 11 home runs through 497 plate appearances, walking in an excellent 15.7% of his trips against a meager 14.3% strikeout percentage. Baseball America only placed the Dominican Republic native 30th on its midseason ranking of the Colorado farm system, but Guardians evaluators are clearly far more bullish on his upside.

Brito has played almost exclusively second base in the minors. He’s not regarded as a particularly impressive defender or athlete, but he’s a switch-hitting middle infielder with an excellent minor league track record. The Guardians have prioritized players with impressive bat-to-ball skills and the ability to play a key defensive position, and Brito certainly fits that mold.

With Brito already eligible for the Rule 5 draft, Cleveland immediately selected him onto the 40-man roster. The Guardians often navigate roster churn around the Rule 5 date as they swap out depth types or players who are becoming more costly via arbitration for further away talent. This is not that kind of move, however. Both players occupy a 40-man spot, and neither is within two years of reaching arbitration. Both can still be optioned to the minor leagues — Jones for one more year, Brito three times. Brito surely won’t factor into the MLB mix right away, but this marks a fascinating swap of unproven young players — one seemingly motivated by each team simply valuing the player they’re bringing in more than the player they’re shipping away, not by contractual provisions or roster reshuffling.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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