Guardians should follow Brewers’ Jackson Chourio blueprint as MLB lockout looms

The 2025 Cleveland Guardians improbable run from dead-team walking to American League Central Champions is a script you’d see for a Major League film.

But that doesn’t mean everything was great. On the other hand, the 2025 Guardians farm system saw an improbable run of injuries among top prospects. Among them, outfielder Chase DeLauter, who was set to make his debut around mid-July or early August prior to — get used to it — another injury popped up.

DeLauter ended up making his big league debut during the postseason, becoming the sixth player in MLB history to debut in the postseason before taking a regular season at-bat. Aside from one little blip defensively in Game 2, DeLauter came as advertised. He should be on the 2026 Opening Day roster — health permitting.

Juan Brito is another prospect who started off hot at Triple-A Columbus before suffering an injury that derailed his MLB timeline. His development has been delayed to the point the Guardians expect to be granted a fourth option year for Brito.

Then there’s the most prominent name in the minor league system: Travis Bazzana. The No. 1 overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft had a shot to make it to Cleveland late in the year after starting the campaign at Double-A Akron… prior to going down with two separate oblique injuries.

When Bazzana came back from his initial oblique injury in July, he did so with tweaked mechanics that helped him mash the ball. The prospect of having him in Cleveland as a potential late-season reinforcement alongside DeLauter was back in play.

That was until Bazzana’s second injury in September sidelined him to cap his 2025 campaign. While his minor league tenure may not have started as expected, Cleveland didn’t have a need to rush Bazzana to the big leagues compared to Kansas City with Florida product Jac Caglione (the No. 6 pick from the same draft).

While I fully expect DeLauter to break camp – knock on wood – with the 2026 Guardians, Bazzana’s decision to forego extra reps in the Arizona Fall League left a bitter taste in both player and team’s mouths. That said, he’s still far enough along in his development that he should be ready to either handle center field or slide Brayan Rocchio to shortstop and man the keystone in Game 1 of 162.

The Guardians need to sign Travis Bazzana to a long-term extension

Here’s the rub: With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire in December 2026, the uncertainty surrounding a 2027 season could lead to a situation where the Australian native doesn’t see Progressive Field any time soon.

There’s one way around the uncertainty – particularly if a new CBA results in a quicker path to free agency.

A long-term extension.

While this same logic can and should apply to DeLauter, today we’re going to focus on Bazzana needing an extension in place to have a guaranteed MLB debut in 2026.

There is one particular wrinkle that could complicate a long-term arrangement with the Oregon State product: He received a hefty $8,950,000 signing bonus as the top pick in 2024 (which was about $2 million under the $10,570,000 slot value). Given he’s banked a few million already, how much incentive does Bazzana have, from his point of view, to ink a long-term extension?

After the 2023 season, the Brewers inked Jackson Chourio to an eight-year, $82 million contract despite the fact that he hadn't played in a Major League game. The calculated gamble quickly turned into a clear win for the Brewers, as Chourio has posted two straight 20-20 seasons, and is a clear part of the Brewers core.

It's the exact kind of blueprint the Guardians should follow with Bazzana — especially given how things have gone with the organization's other top prospects.

As we’ve seen with Brito and DeLauter, injuries have derailed both of their chances of debuting in the just completed campaign for Cleveland. Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonnetti likely won’t be getting a significant boost in payroll to go after external additions such as Cody Bellinger or a much-needed right-handed thumper.

While it’s reasonable to expect some spending on the free market this winter, a lot of wallets across the league could be tight in anticipation for a long lockout in a year’s time.

So if the spending is going to be modest when it comes to external acquisitions, earmarking the money coming off the 2025 books for internal extensions makes the most sense. After all, minority owner David Blitzer can’t legally exercise his option to acquire controlling interest of the team until after the 2027 World Series.

“Prospects are prospects for a reason.” That’s a saying my dad has repeated to me over the last 20 years or so.

Bazzana isn’t just any prospect, and any amount of control is valuable. Not only would an extension allow the Guardians to control him through his arbitration-eligible years, but it also provides him with some security.

While DeLauter, Cade Smith, and even Scott Boras client Gavin Williams are among the top extension candidates for this winter, Bazzana should be as high of a priority as those three. Even if there’s some risk for the team, there’s even more risk in a new CBA shortening a path to the free market without a deal in place for Bazzana to break camp with the big league team in March.