Cleveland Guardians' Top Prospect Hit With Discouraging Take

When the Cleveland Guardians traded away second baseman Andres Gimenez back in December, they had multiple candidates who could potentially fill his role in 2025.

One of them was top prospect Juan Brito, who has yet to make his major-league debut but seemed to have a strong chance to do so this coming season.

However, thanks to a rough showing in spring training, Brito's status for opening day is now hanging in the balance, and James Mastrucci of Away Back Gone seems to think that the 23-year-old may have played himself off the roster.

"Brito has two hits in 24 at-bats, both being home runs, with seven strikeouts and two walks. The sample size is still small, being just 10 games, but getting on base just four times in 26 plate appearances is just not good enough," Mastrucci wrote.

Brito slashed .256/.365/.443 with 21 home runs and 84 RBI over 652 plate appearances at Triple-A Columbus last season, but obivously, that success has not yet translated onto the big-league level.

"A certain level of offense is going to be expected from whoever wins the starting second base job, and what Brito has done so far does not represent anything remotely close to being the offensive upgrade over Gimenez the Guardians are looking for," Mastrucci added.

Mastrucci qualified his assessment by noting that Brito still has "plenty of potential" and could very well be with Cleveland's major-league club at some point in 2025, but that it does not look like it will be happening anytime soon.

Brito, who actually began his career with the Colorado Rockies before being traded to the Guardians in November 2022, owns a lifetime .834 OPS across five minor-league campaigns.

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