Guardians infield prospect to miss extended period following surgery

If the Cleveland Guardians had any intention of calling up infield prospect Juan Brito any time soon, they have missed the opportunity to do so.

Brito injured his right thumb sliding into third base last Thursday and was placed on the 15-day injured list as a result. The high-grade ligament sprain Brito suffered required surgery and will be held out of action for the next 8-12 weeks.

This injury could not have come at a worse time for Brito. Slashing .291/.406/.491 with five doubles and two home runs in 16 games, Brito was a force at the plate for the Columbus Clippers. An impressive aspect of his batting line in Triple-A is that he has walked 11 times compared to striking out 10. This relatively falls in line with his career strikeout-to-walk ratio, having struck 310 times in the minors while reaching first via base on balls 286 times.

It is possible that had Brito not injured his thumb that he would have been the infielder the Guardians called up earlier this week following the placement of outfielder Lane Thomas on the injured list. Cleveland would bring 26-year-old Will Wilson up from Triple-A, who would go on to single in his MLB Debut. Nothing against Wilson here, but it seems much more likely that Brito would have gotten the nod over him had he been healthy.

Brito had been up for Cleveland's starting second base job in spring training, but a poor performance from all parties involved in Cactus League play resulted in Gabriel Arias winning the job by default. Luckily for the Guardians, Arias has been able to get off to a surprisingly solid start in 2025 and has helped make up for the lack of production from a good portion of Cleveland's lineup.

If Brito can continue posting similar numbers in Triple-A once he returns from his surgery, it will only be a matter of time before he gets his chance in the majors. The Guardians need to get some sort of answer as to what they have in Brito, and they are not going to get that if he remains in Columbus for the whole season.

Cleveland will have a much better idea of what the future of their infield looks like once Brito gets his shot, and that could influence their roster construction strategies moving forward. Brito proving he is an MLB-caliber player would certainly help raise the floor and ceiling of the Guardians in the short and long term, and that is something they could really use right about now.