Who will play second base for the Guardians was the biggest question surrounding the team heading into spring training. It remains a question with less than a week before the regular season opener March 27 with the Royals in Kansas City. Two horses were scratched from the race March 21 when Juan Bri to and Angel Martinez were optioned to Triple-A Columbus. That leaves Tyler Freeman, Gabriel Arias and Daniel Schneeman battling to take over second base from Andres Gimenez. Gimenez was traded to the Blue Jays in December. “We still haven’t finalized everything,” Manager Stephen Vogt said on Zoom. “We don’t know what it’s going to end up looking like, but the combination of Tyler Freeman, Gabby Arias, Daniel Schneeman, those three guys are going to continue to get reps at second base.” In football, coaches like to say if your team has two starting quarterbacks it means it doesn’t have one because neither has separated from the other. Time will tell if that is the situation for the Guardians at second base. Arias is hitting .256 this spring two two home runs and three RBI in 39 at-bats. He has doubled twice. Freeman is hitting .278 with two home runs and five RBI in 36 at-bats. He has doubled three times. Schneeman is hitting .265 in Cactus League play. He also has homered twice with four RBI and two doubles in 34 at-bats. Arias, Freeman and Schneeman can play multiple positions. Arias and Freeman bat right-handed. Scheeman hits left-handed. All three are expected to be on the 26-man roster when camp breaks next week. Simply put, Vogt is looking for someone to hold down second base until 2024 first-overall draft pick Travis Bazzana is ready to play with the Guardians. That could happen late in 2025 or a year from now. Brito homered four times and drove in seven runs in Cactus League games after a slow start in spring training. He was hitting .189 with seven hits and eight strikeouts in 37 at-bats. Vogt said Brito will get more playing time with the Clippers than he would have had he made the Guardians’ roster. “I thought Juan had a great camp,” Vogt said. “He came in and worked extremely hard. We’ve talked about it all spring long. Just the work that he put in with the infield group, the hitting group, and he had a good camp. I think these are the decisions that come down to the very end, and they’re really tough to do. “We told Juan he needs to continue to just go play, be yourself, play free. And I’m sure he is going to have an opportunity to help us at some point this year.” Gimenez is batting .292 in spring training with the Blue Jays in the Grapefruit League in Florida. He has two home runs and 11 RBI. The Guardians traded Gimenez and right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin to Toronto for second baseman Spencer Horwitz and minor-league outfielder Nick Mitchell on Dec. 10 of last year. They traded Horwitz to the Pirates on the same day for three pitchers — lefties Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy plus right-hander Luis Ortiz. Ortiz is the only one of the four players netted in the Gimenez trade that is Major League ready, but Ortiz has not impressed. He is 0-4 in five starts with an 11.66 ERA in Cactus League games. He might begin his time with the Guardians as a relief pitcher. ...read more read less