The Cleveland Guardians have a massive void to fill as Jose Ramirez heads to the injured list for just the second time during his career. 

Not only do the Guardians need someone to step up in the lineup, but Stephen Vogt needs to determine who is going to lock down the hot corner in Ramirez’s absence. 

Cleveland has a couple of candidates to do just that on the defense end.

When Cleveland placed Ramirez on the injured list, the corresponding move was to activate Gabriel Arias from the injured list. The infielder hasn’t played in a big league game since the beginning of April with a hamstring injury of his own.

Defensively, Arias has played all over the diamond throughout his career, including all four infield positions. The vast majority of Arias’ playing time has come at shortstop (1,484.0 innings), but his second-most has actually come at third base (364.2 innings).

Given Arias defensive ability and arm strength, which ranked in the 94th percentile in 2025, the 26-year-old might be Cleveland’s best defensive option at third base while Ramirez is sidelined. 

On days Arias isn’t playing third base, another option for the Guardians is to have Daniel Schneemann play the position. 

Like Arias, Schneemann is no stranger to the hot corner, and he’s even made 17 starts there so far this season, on days when Ramirez hasn’t been the designated hitter. 

Cleveland isn’t losing anything in run prevention with Schneemann at third, either. He’s also a tremendous defender and was even a Gold Glove finalist for the utility position a year ago. 

With Arias being a right-handed hitter and Schnemann a left-handed hitter, it wouldn’t be shocking if these two ended up in some sort of platoon role together at third base over the next few weeks. 

When Vogt was asked on Sunday who could see time at third base with Ramirez injured, he did mention Arias and Schneemann as two top candidates. However, Cleveland’s skipper also mentioned another name: David Fry.

Fry actually came up through the Minor League system as a third baseman, among many other positions. He’s only played a little bit there at the big-league level, obviously because Cleveland has had Ramirez there.

That said, Vogt clearly sees a world where Fry could get some run time there over the next month, whether it be a start of late-game substitution.

Even though it is unfortunate that Ramirez is injured, the Guardians do have plenty of options to fill his position on defense. 

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