All eyes will be on Travis Bazzana when the Guardians open spring training in Goodyear, Ariz., in a little more than three weeks.
Bazzana was chosen by the Guardians with the first pick in the 2024 draft. While players chosen after him have already made their major-league debuts — some more successfully than others — injuries have delayed Bazzana’s arrival in Cleveland.
The good news, according to manager Stephen Vogt, is the 23-year-old second baseman from Australia should have no restrictions when the Guardians hold their first full-squad workout on Feb. 17. Exactly how Bazzana will fit in is to be determined. He was sidelined from May 21 to July 18 of 2025 with a right oblique strain. He suffered a left oblique strain in September and was shut down the remainder of the season.
“Travis is healthy,” Vogt said Jan. 15 on Zoom. “He’s having a great offseason, and I’m excited just to watch him play. We got a small glimpse of him last spring. He’ll be in the big league camp with us, so we should get some good looks at him this year.”
The Guardians never had the first pick in the draft before the ping pong balls fell their way at the 2023 winter meetings. It was only the second time a lottery was used for the MLB draft. Before the lottery, teams drafted in inverse order of their finish the previous season. A coin was flipped to break a tie.
The Guards were 76-86 in 2023. They had a two percent chance of winning the lottery. But the ping pong ball combination of 8, 14, 10 and 7 meant the Guardians had seven months to decide how they would spend their allowance like a child anticipating a trip to the toy store.
“I’m really excited to see what Travis has done and the growth that he’s had from the learning experience from last year alone,” Vogt said. “Dealing with not being able to play is going to go a long way for him.
“We continue to believe the sky’s the limit for Travis. He’s going to be a big part of our team in the future.”
That future might start out of spring training, or it might be delayed until later in the season. MLB pipeline rates Bazzana as the Guardians’ No. 1 prospect and projects a 2026 debut.
“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,” The MLB.com scouting report says of Bazzana. “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.”
Bazzana bats left-handed. He played 27 games with the High-A Captains in 2024. He played 51 with Double-Akron and 26 with Triple-A Columbus in 2025. He batted .225 with four home runs and 14 RBI in 89 at-bats with the Clippers. He showed a keen eye at the plate with 29 walks. He struck out 32 times.
Chase Burns, a right-handed starter selected with the second pick in 2024, was 0-3 in eight starts with the Reds last season. He pitched in 13 games and posted a 4.57 ERA.
Outfielder Charlie Condon, taken by the Rockies with the third pick, rose to Double-A Hartford in 2025.
The A’s hit the fourth pick out of the park when they drafted slugging first baseman Nick Kurtz. Kurtz clobbered 36 home runs for the A’s and was voted 2025 American League Rookie of the Year.
• Bazzana is on the Team Australia roster for the World Baseball Classic. The event runs from March 5-17. How long Bazzana plays for his native country and is away from Guardians’ Cactus League games depends on Australia’s success.
The WBC is a nervous time for Major League managers because of the injury risk.
“We know Travis will go represent his home country of Australia, which is really exciting for him and for Australia,” Vogt said. “So with Travis, he’ll be there (in Goodyear) for the first few weeks of camp and then obviously go play.
“And then whenever Australia is done, he’ll be able to be back and we’ll get as many looks at him as we can.”
Catcher Bo Naylor is expected to play for Team Canada. Pitchers Cade Smith and Erik Sabrowski might join him.
Guardians infielder Gabriel Arias might be part of the Team Venezuela roster.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
A jiffy is an actual time measurement equaling 1/100th of a second. … A group of jellyfish is called a smack. … Twenty-five percent of your bones are in your feet. … Hawaii is the only state never to report a temperature of zero degrees…Since 2005, it has been illegal in South Korea for a baseball player to wear a cabbage leaf under his ballcap. Players would wear frozen cabbage leaves to stay cool, but Korean baseball officials deemed them a distraction. The Koreans did not invent the idea. Babe Ruth chilled cabbage leaves in an ice box to wear under his cap. He would switch them out when necessary. …Dalmatians are born with pure white fur. Their black spots start appearing about two weeks after birth