Perhaps the Cleveland Guardians have an open competition at second base after all

The Cleveland Guardians entered spring training hoping that the competition for who would succeed Andres Gimenez as their starting second baseman would be a hotly contested one. Unfortunately, neither Gabriel Arias nor Juan Brito have done anything to take the job uncontested, resulting in Arias being the leader by default. While Arias is still ahead of Brito, the gap between them has become noticeably smaller.

Brito has five hits in his last 10 at-bats and just hit his team-leading fourth spring training home run in Tuesday's 7-3 loss to the Texas Rangers, the second straight contest in which he homered in. Meanwhile, Arias is 3-10 in his last three games, with two singles and one home run during that span.

Arias has managed to maintain his lead over Brito, but that lead is rapidly shrinking. The two singles from Arias on Wednesday helped make his recent performance look a little bit better, as he was 1-6 in his previous two games. Brito has avoided striking out during this recent uptick in play, while Arias has struck out three times in his last three spring training games.

Strikeouts have been Arias's biggest issue, as his 32.3% strikeout rate in 191 major league games has proven to be the biggest obstacle standing between him and big league success. Arias continuing to strike out this frequently, even in spring training, looks to be an indicator that he is still the same player and may not be the offensive upgrade at second base the Guardians are looking for.

The starting second base job in Cleveland has been Arias's to lose for quite some time. Neither Arias nor Brito were impressive early, but the slightly better battling line from Arias put him in the lead by default. But with Brito's recent stretch at the plate, Arias winning the starting job is no longer the foregone conclusion it appeared to be. Arias is still likely to win out over Brito due to his lack of minor league options, but Brito should be seeing plenty of time at second base for the Guardians in 2025, it just may not be from the start.