The Guardians have promoted Juan Brito and promptly placed him in their starting lineup.
Brito is a switch-hitting, 24 year-old infielder from the Dominican Republic, acquired by the Guardians in the FIRST Nolan Jones trade. FanGraphs ranked Brito as the 32nd best Guardians’ prospect this offseason, MLB Pipeline had him 16th, and our fan survey ranked him 9th. Personally, I have been a Brito truther for a while, so I am excited to see him get his first taste of the big leagues.
Brito has played 9 games
so far this season at Columbus and has a 123 wRC+ with a 7.1/14.3 K/BB%. Overall in Triple-A, Brito has a 114 wRC+ with a 16.7/13.7 K/BB% in 184 games. Brito had a 136 wRC+ to begin the 2025 season before he ran into both a thumb surgery and then a hamstring surgery last season. If the 130ish wRC+ he has shown while healthy in Columbus over the past two years is indicative of who he is, he has potential to be a 110 wRC+ bat for Cleveland.
The question for Brito has always been defense. He has played at second, first, third, and corner outfield for the Guardians as they try to find a way to get his bat in the lineup. The team will experience a defensive drop-off going from Brayan Rocchio to Brito at second base. The determining factor for Brito, then, will be if his bat can make a below-average defender an above-average major league player.
Brito’s calling cards are his ability to make contact, take walks and pull fly balls. Aside from the aforementioned 14% walk rate, he has maintained a 9.5% swinging strike rate at Columbus, and fly ball rates around 40% with a pulled rate of around 55%. Brito also has about even splits as a switch-hitter, with OPS’s over .800 against RHP and LHP in Triple-A. He is slightly better against LHP, overall, which may result in Daniel Schneemann getting some starts at second base against RHP.
While watching Brito, you should monitor his defense and monitor his ability to lift and pull the ball. If he can make the plays an average second baseman can make and consistently get the ball in the air down the line, there is potential for an Isaac Parades-type career for Brito. Perhaps the most important factor, however, will be if he is able to control his tendency to chase (around 29% in Triple-A). If Brito can manage to transfer something close to his 14% walk rate to the bigs, I promise you are going to like him. If that chase rate, however, bumps up to closer to 35%… he is going to make a lot of poor contact and his walk rate will drop to closer to 7%. He does not hit the ball hard enough to sustain that.
Brito is a fun player. I met him once at GuardsFest (curse you, Paul Dolan, for eliminating that) and he was kind to both me and my son. He’s got a little Jose in him as a hitter and could offer some fun pop down the lines at Progressive Field, while taking some needed walks. Good luck, Brito!
