CLEVELAND — Saturday was a busy day at Progressive Field as the Guardians readied for a sold-out game against the San Diego Padres on the Bo Naylor jersey giveaway night. But before taking the field, the team held batting practice—and among players participating in the warmup was recent No. 1 draft pick Travis Bazzana.
Bazzana, the 21-year-old second baseman slugger out of Oregon State University who the Guardians took with the franchise's first-ever first-overall draft pick, warmed up his bat in Cleveland for the first time.
As he took his batting practice, Bazzana had quite the audience. From family and friends who got to watch Bazzana's practice from the field to Guardians stars, including José Ramírez and Josh Naylor, the second baseman had all eyes on him.
Watch some views from Bazzana's BP below:
#Guardians No. 1 draft pick Travis Bazzana taking batting practice at Progressive Field today. He had quite the audience, including José Ramírez and Josh Naylor.
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) July 20, 2024
Travis wanted BP to keep going, asking José for "one more round" of work. pic.twitter.com/Gh5yk8WVIY
At the end of his batting practice, Bazzana even asked Ramírez for another round—not ready for the work at Progressive Field to stop.
After choosing to play at Oregon State University in 2022, Bazzana quickly made a name for himself. Numerous All-American honors, broken school records and earning the Cape Cod batting title and MVP last year set Bazzana apart and labeled him the No. 1 Draft prospect.
In his junior year, Bazzana slashed .407/.568/.911 with 28 home runs, 76 walks and just 37 strikeouts in 296 plate appearances. The lefty became the first second baseman to go first overall in MLB Draft History and the first Australian to go in the first round.
The Guardians officially signed Bazzana on Friday, making him officially a member of the Cleveland Guardians organization.
"It was kind of a build-up for me. During the season I spent a lot of time in my downtime sort of researching the teams that were in the mix and where I was supposed to be projected, I guess, and by the end of the season I had this idea that the culture at the big league level, the young players, the intelligence of the organization and the consistency of winning over the past 10 years put the Guards in such a powerful spot for me in terms of where I wanted to be," Bazzana said. "After my college season, meetings began and started to grasp even more about the organization, even meeting people like Chris [Antonetti]. And again, I came out of those meetings with a true gut feeling that Cleveland is where I wanted to be."
Bazzana will join the High-A Lake County Captains next week, where the real work on his development and eventual ascension into MLB with the Guardians will begin.
