How concerned should the Cleveland Guardians be about second base?

The Cleveland Guardians entered spring training with just one position battle of note, that being who will take over as the starting second baseman following the offseason departure of Andres Gimenez. With the job being up for grabs for either Gabriel Arias or Juan Brito, ideally, one of them would have emerged as a favorite of sorts, but up to now, that has not been the case.

Arias and Brito have both struggled at the plate in Arizona, and that is a major cause for concern. One of the primary reasons for moving on from Gimenez in the first place was partly in an attempt to get more offense out of their starting second baseman (the other was, of course, shedding the remainder of his contract).

Entering Saturday, Arias has four hits in 19 at-bats with five strikeouts and one walk, but one of those hits was a home run. Meanwhile, Brito is 1-16 with seven strikeouts and two walks, as he has also been a letdown at the plate. That one hit, however, was of the four-base variety. Even though some may point to the pair of home runs from this duo as a positive sign of sorts, it should be pointed out that the ball flies in Arizona, making this less impressive than it seems on the surface.

The sample size is small, and the best way to evaluate performances during spring training is valuing process over results, but it would be a lot more encouraging if either one of Arias or Brito were knocking the cover off the ball en route to taking the starting job and running with it. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as both have failed to produce results capable of doing so.

If the battle for the starting second base job still lacks a clear winner toward the end of spring training, do not be surprised if Arias gets the nod over Brito due to lacking minor league options. This could give him one last chance to stick around in Cleveland before the Guardians are forced to move in a different direction.