{"id":610964,"date":"2026-04-28T09:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610964\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:19:13","slug":"guardians-to-select-travis-bazzana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610964\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians To Select Travis Bazzana"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardians are reportedly promoting 2024 first overall pick Travis Bazzana<\/a>. He should debut tomorrow and take over as the everyday second baseman. They\u2019ll open an active roster spot by optioning Juan Brito<\/a>. Cleveland still has an opening on the 40-man roster after waiving Kolby Allard<\/a> a couple weeks ago, so no other move is necessary.<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s middle infield has been in flux since\u00a0Gabriel Arias<\/a> went down with a left hamstring strain three weeks ago. That moved Brayan Rocchio<\/a> from second base to shortstop. The Guardians promoted Brito after the Arias injury, but the 24-year-old second baseman struggled after collecting five hits in his first three games. Brito had just four hits in 39 at-bats over his next 12 contests. He also committed four errors across 123 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

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That opened the door for Bazzana\u2019s first major league look. The Australian-born infielder is out to a strong .287\/.422\/.511 start over 24 games with Triple-A Columbus. He has taken walks at a huge 17.9% clip against a league average 21.4% strikeout rate. Bazzana only has two home runs, but he has already tallied 11 doubles and a pair of triples. He\u2019s also 8-10 in stolen base attempts.<\/p>\n

Bazzana\u2019s advanced hit tool and extremely patient approach have been his calling cards dating back to his college days at Oregon State. He was expected to be one of the quickest players from his draft to the majors. Instead, Chase Burns<\/a>,\u00a0Nick Kurtz<\/a>,\u00a0Cam Smith<\/a>,\u00a0JJ Wetherholt<\/a>,\u00a0Jac Caglianone<\/a>,\u00a0Christian Moore<\/a>,\u00a0Trey Yesavage<\/a>,\u00a0Carson Benge<\/a> and even Konnor Griffin<\/a> (a high school draftee) were all 2024 first-rounders who got to the big leagues before he did.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s at least partially due to health. A pair of oblique injuries limited Bazzana to 77 games between the top two minor league levels last season (plus seven rehab contests at the Arizona complex). It was understandable the Guardians wanted him to open the season in Triple-A. They probably should have swapped him in for Brito earlier than they have this April, however.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a moot point now, as Bazzana joins Chase DeLauter<\/a> as touted rookies in Stephen Vogt\u2019s lineup. He has been a full-time second baseman in the minor leagues and could see time at the keystone and designated hitter. That\u2019d allow them to use hot-hitting utility player Daniel Schneemann<\/a> more frequently in left field against right-handed pitching. George Valera<\/a> has started slowly since returning from a season-opening calf strain, while the switch-hitting Angel Mart\u00ednez<\/a> has better career numbers against lefties.<\/p>\n

Bazzana comfortably meets the criteria to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He entered the season among the top 25 minor league talents at each of MLB Pipeline<\/a>, Baseball America<\/a> and ESPN<\/a>. He was a little lower on preseason rankings from FanGraphs<\/a> and Keith Law of The Athletic<\/a> but still easily a consensus Top 100 prospect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beyond the point at which Bazzana can accrue a full service year through time spent on the MLB roster. He would earn a full year of service time if he places within the top two in AL Rookie of the Year voting. It\u2019ll be a challenge to compete with Kevin McGonigle<\/a>,\u00a0Munetaka Murakami<\/a>, Carter Jensen<\/a>\u00a0and teammates DeLauter and\u00a0Parker Messick<\/a> among what could be an excellent AL rookie class. The Guardians would not be eligible for an extra draft choice if Bazzana wins Rookie of the Year because they waited beyond the second week of April to call him up.<\/p>\n

If Bazzana sticks on the MLB roster, he\u2019d be a lock to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player after 2028. The Guardians will hope he hits the ground running and solidifies his hold on the second base job. If not, future optional assignments to the minor leagues could change his service trajectory. Arias\u2019 initial 4-8 week recovery timeline left open a potential May return. He should be a utility player but could reclaim the shortstop job and push Rocchio back to second if Bazzana struggles in his first look at big league pitching.<\/p>\n

Jeff Passan of ESPN<\/a> first reported the Bazzana promotion. Zack Meisel of The Athletic<\/a> reported the Brito demotion. Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Guardians are reportedly promoting 2024 first overall pick Travis Bazzana. He should debut tomorrow and take over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[148094,99,211834],"class_list":["post-610964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-juan-brito","tag-sports","tag-travis-bazzana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}