Travis Bazzana will make his debut at second base for the Cleveland Guardians tonight in Cleveland.
Bazzana is, as you may have heard from Australia. He was also, you may have heard, the first overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft. He played college ball at Oregon State, and has put up a 138 wRC, 24/17 K/BB%, 25/29 in stolen base attempts, with a .252/.391/.435 slashline.
His batted ball data and plate discipline metrics are very good, as outlined by Eli Ben-Porat on Twitter:
Travis Bazzana does everything at a high level. Aggressive against fastballs, passive against non-fastballs, makes a lot of contact, 55 grade or better power. Gonna be a very good player for a very long time. Improves every single year. pic.twitter.com/ipXDQoI9w8
Thomas Nestico also has an excellent breakdown of Bazzana’s underlying metrics in the minors here:
Travis Bazzana gets the call!The #1 overall in the 2024 draft is coming off a torrid stretch in AAA where he was one of the hottest players at the level. His well-balanced profile provides him a solid foundation to transition smoothly to MLBCongratulations! https://t.co/nOq6NVV5ym pic.twitter.com/lnoFsWB373
Coming into this season, Bazzana was ranked 16th in MLB by MLB Pipeline, 22nd by Baseball America, 24th by Baseball Prospectus, 50th by the Athletic, 23rd by ESPN and 54th by FanGraphs. I hope Pipeline was the winner here, because then we will be, also.
I would say that having watched a lot of Bazzana, fans need to be patient as he adjusts to the big leagues. Be prepared for him to be too passive at the plate, initially, as he gets his feet under him. Be prepared for teams to attack him outside ALL the time until he proves he can lay off balls thrown out there and serve enough of the strikes into the opposite field with authority to earn himself some inside pitches to pull. Expect his defense to still be a little shaky, but hopefully a notable step up from what Juan Brito provided. Expect him to display a Jose Ramirez-type motor and enthusiasm for playing the game, as well as a good dose of competitive fire.
Welcome to the big leagues, Travis Bazzana! Everyone, prepare your Bluey catchphrases for home run calls when he hits one (“And that’s a nice parking spot, Rita!” “He gave that one a Whack-a-doo!” “That one will keepy uppy and outta here!”).