Guardians’ Travis Bazzana earns high marks in final prospect ranking of his career 

On April 28, Travis Bazzana went from being a potential option to becoming a tangible one when he made his MLB debut after a nearly two year journey through the minor leagues. 

And he’s spent the past two-plus weeks looking like he belongs thanks to his strong command of the strike zone combined with some good pop.

But that MLB production has come while he has yet to clear the 130 at-bat threshold that would cause him to graduate from rookie status. As such, he was still included on MLB Pipeline’s latest update of the top 100 prospects in baseball. 

While it wasn’t a full update, it was a reset of the board to remove all the players who had graduated from rookie status while backfilling those spots at the end of the list. 

But Guardians fans should be very happy with what’s at the front of the board, as Bazzana moved up to the No. 12 spot in the rankings. 

Not a bad place to end your time as a prospect. 

Travis Bazzana got a great curtain call in MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 100 prospects 

Bazzana opened the year as the No. 20 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s list, but was able to move up thanks to some graduations in front of him, including Pirates prospect Konnor Griffin (the previous No. 1 prospect). That spot was filled by Brewers shortstop Jesús Made. 

Bazzana’s looked the part through his first 14 games in the bigs, as he posted a .407 on-base percentage while recording seven steals and walking in 20% of his at-bats. 

He also recorded his first career home run against the Twins and also roped a double in the gap against the Angels. More power is going to come with time. 

He’ll finish his time as the third-best prospect in the American League Central behind TIgers outfielder Max Clark (No. 8) and Twins outfielder Walker Jenkins (No. 12). 

They also had one of the top risers on the list in Ralphy Velazquez, who rose 12 spots to the No. 59 spot. 

He may be ranked even higher once the Pipeline crew puts out their full update after the draft thanks to his fantastic start to the season. 

Velazquez is one of the fastest risers in the Guardians’ minor league system, and he entered play on Friday slashing .311/.413/.508 with five home runs and 24 RBI in 33 games. 

The 20-year-old is still likely a year away from joining the Guardians’ big league roster since he’s not on the 40-man roster, but his star turn has been fantastic to watch and it’s awesome to see him get national recognition for it. 

Angel Genao (No. 47 prospect) and Cooper Ingle (No. 73) are the other Guardians prospects who are in Pipeline’s top 100 list.

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