Cleveland Guardians No. 1 MLB Draft Pick Travis Bazzana: What to Know

Getty Travis Bazzana went No. 1 in the 2024 MLB Draft

Travis Bazzana added his name to a star-studded list on Sunday, July 14, going No. 1 overall in the 2024 MLB Draft to the Cleveland Guardians.

He joins All-Star starting pitcher Paul Skenes (2023), Adley Rutschman (2019), Dansby Swanson (2015), Carlos Correa (2012), Gerrit Cole (2011), and a host of other former top picks, beginning his pro career with sky-high expectations.

Bazzana comes to the Guardians from Oregon State, where he hit .407 as a junior with a 1.479 OPS and 28 home runs in 60 games. At 21 years old, Bazzana is the first-ever second baseman to go No. 1 overall in the draft.

Here’s what you need to know about Travis Bazzana.

Travis Bazzana Is the First Australian-born Player Taken No. 1 in the MLB Draft

Bazzana grew up playing cricket, rugby, soccer, basketball, track & field, and baseball. As his star rose on the diamond, he played games in the Australian Baseball League, the highest professional level in the country and a league that MLB jointly owns.

He came to the United States for college and told the AP he hopes to be an example for young players in Australia.

“An opportunity to make an impact on a lot of baseball players and a lot of people back home in Australia, and hopefully change the narrative for baseball there,” Bazzana told the AP.

According to Baseball Australia, 38 Australian-born players have played in the Majors. Dave Nilsson is the only one to hit more than 30 career home runs.

“He is probably the catalyst of the next generation of [Australian] baseball,” Andrew Riddell, national player development manager at Baseball Australia, told FOX Sports Australia. “And he is going to be a name that everyone in Australia should know.”

Why the Guardians Picked Travis Bazzana

The Guardians’ president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, spoke with the media on Sunday about picking Bazzana, calling it a draft-day decision.

“He recognizes pitches exceedingly well,” Antonetti said, per the AP. “He knows the strike zone, makes good swing decisions, when he does choose to swing makes elite-level contact. And I think what’s really grown in Travis’s game over the past year or so is the ability to add impact and drive the ball.”

CBS Sports’ scouting report on Bazzana seems to back that up. They lauded his “command of the strike zone” and his ability to barrel the ball.

His agent, Chase Brewer, referred to Bazzana as “the most interesting man in college baseball” due to his baseball IQ. According to MLB.com, when Bazzana was a freshman, he identified that his chase rate jumped in hitter-friendly counts. His OBP leapt form .423 as a freshman to .500 as a sophomore.

That same MLB story also says he once delivered a 90-minute presentation to Oregon State pitchers on which pitches they should throw in certain situations.

Bazzana Could Sign an 8-figure Bonus With the Guardians

MLB’s draft slot system is a little confusing, but all told, it projects Bazzana’s signing bonus to be $10,570,600.

That doesn’t mean Bazzana is guaranteed that much.

MLB assigns a “slot value” to every draft pick in the first 10 rounds. The grand total of a given team’s slot values becomes what’s known as their “bonus pool.” Teams can sign their draft picks from the first 10 rounds using money in that pool, with the MLB-assigned values as a guideline. It’s meant to keep top draft picks from having too much bargaining power over the teams that draft them.

After the first 10 rounds, teams can sign players for a bonus of up to $150,000 without it counting against their pool.

As Dayn Perry of CBS Sports puts it, “it’s a means to limit labor costs, which is what team owners crave above all else.”

Sounds about right for Major League Baseball.