Minor League Baseball

Cleveland Guardians Top Prospect Dealing with Undiagnosed Injury in Precarious Development

Travis Bazzana, taken No. 1 overall in the draft last year out of Oregon State, exited Wednesday's game and the team still doesn't have an exact idea of what the outlook is.
Brady Farkas|
RubberDucks second baseman Travis Bazzana applies the tag to Altoona Curve’s Termarr Johnson, who was called safe with a stolen base, on April 13, 2025, in Akron, Ohio.
RubberDucks second baseman Travis Bazzana applies the tag to Altoona Curve’s Termarr Johnson, who was called safe with a stolen base, on April 13, 2025, in Akron, Ohio. | Phil Masturzo / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians are in a precarious spot with top prospect Travis Bazzana. Taken No. 1 overall in the draft last year out of Oregon State, Bazzana hasn't played since Wednesday as he deals with side discomfort.

However, days later, there is still no official diagnosis. Bazzana is the No. 12 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline.

A second baseman, he's projected to make his debut in Cleveland this season. After the team traded away Andres Gimenez in the offseason, there seems to be an opening whenever he shows he's ready, and assuming he's healthy.

He's hitting .252 thus far with the four homers and 17 RBIs. He's also posted a .362 on-base percentage and a .795 OPS.

He played 27 games last season after getting drafted, hitting .238 at High-A. He played his college ball at Oregon State.

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Bazzana has a compact left-handed swing with quality bat speed and makes excellent swing decisions, leaving him with no obvious weakness at the plate. He rarely chases, makes contact with ease while generating upper-echelon exit velocities and produces against lefties and righties and all types of pitches. His exceptional bat-to-ball skills overshadow his plus raw power, and he gets to most of it while displaying the ability to drive the ball out of the park to the opposite field.

At the big-league level, the Guardians will take on the Cincinnati Reds again on Saturday night. The Reds took Friday's game 5-4.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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