Guardians top prospect now one step away from shocking playoff race cameo

Last summer, the Cleveland Guardians drafted Travis Bazzana with the first pick in the MLB Draft in the hope that he’d lock down Cleveland’s middle infield for years to come. 

We might get a chance to see that happen soon, as the Guardians promoted Bazzana to Triple-A Columbus on Sunday, putting him one step away from making his big league debut for the Guardians. 

Guardians top prospect now one step away from shocking playoff race cameo

Bazzana’s promotion to Colubmus is just another feather in the cap for the 22-year-old, who has spent all of the season with Double-A Akron outside of a brief rehab appearance in the Arizona Complex league. 

Bazzana’s done the most with his time in Akron, posting a .256/.364/.426 slashline to go along with five home runs and 23 RBI. He’s also been on quite a tear recently, as he’s hit .265 with seven doubles, a home run and 10 walks since he returned from the injured list on July 18. He missed nearly two months with an oblique strain. 

Although Bazzana’s only a year removed from being drafted, he’s older than some of his peers and was thought of as an MLB-ready prospect ahead of the draft and hasn’t done anything to dissuade that notion. 

MLB Pipeline has Bazzana ranked as Cleveland’s top prospect, along with being the No. 12 prospect in all of baseball. He’ll be joined in Columbus by fellow prospects Tommy Mace, Ross Carver and Cooper Ingle. They also promoted Ralphy Velazquez from High-A to Double-A. 

And, depending on how the season goes, he may get a chance to carve out his MLB path later this summer in a postseason push. He seems like a logical candidate to earn a call-up when rosters expand in September. He’s also now one injury away as well. The only “roadblock” in the way would be the fact he isn’t on the 40-man roster, but that could be an easy fix. 

It wouldn’t be the first time the Guardians called up one of their top prospects to assist in a stretch run. In 2022, they carried Bo Naylor, Will Brennan and Will Benson on their postseason roster despite the fact they had just 105 combined MLB at-bats between them.

Last year, Erik Sabrowski and Andrew Walters turned September cameos into spots in the postseason bullpen. 

Although Bazzana would technically need to be added to the MLB roster before Sept. 1 to be eligible for the postseason roster, the Guardians could petition to add him to the roster to replace someone who is on the injured list. 

That’s how the Guardians were able to add Brennan, Naylor, Walters and Sabrowski to their respective postseason rosters.

Even if Bazzana doesn’t earn a call-up this year, this promotion puts him on the fast-track to earn a spot on next year’s roster out of spring training, which is a great sign.