Pirates' Konnor Griffin decision gives Guardians clear Travis Bazzana blueprint

Earlier today, the Pittsburgh Pirates officially announced their intention to compete in 2026 by promoting top prospect Konnor Griffin ahead of their home opener tomorrow. 

The No. 9 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Griffin is widely viewed as the No. 1 prospect in baseball and is projected to be one of the best players from his draft class. 

One of the players from that draft class is Guardians prospect Travis Bazzana, who was the No. 1 pick in that draft but has since been lapped in prospect rankings by Griffin, who is nearly four years younger than him. 

And while prospect rankings aren’t the end all be all, Bazzana’s slow crawl through the Guardians’ system has been incredibly frustrating, especially since part of the reason for it has been injuries, which are out of everyone’s control. 

Still, the Pirates decision to promote Griffin should help provide the Guardians with more of a blueprint to call Bazzana up to the bigs. 

The Guardians need to be aggressive with Travis Bazzana 

Griffin’s promotion comes at a time when he and the Pirates are reportedly “deep” into extension talks despite the fact he’s never stepped on a big league diamond. 

Those kinds of contracts are en vogue right now thanks to Seattle inking top prospect Colt Emerson to an eight-year $95 million contract and the Brewers getting close to signing Cooper Pratt to an eight-year, $50.75 million contract. Neither of them have made their MLB debut. 

It’s hard to believe the Guardians would sign Bazzana to a contract of that nature (they can be a bit hit or miss), but it still doesn’t change the fact that they need to be aggressive about his big league promotion. 

Bazzana made it to Triple-A last season before suffering a season-ending oblique injury, and he started this season at the same level after a strong spring. While he’s hit just .167 in five games with Columbus this season, he has a .348 on-base percentage and has a double, triple and RBI. 

By no means is he a complete product. But he still could be a successful big leaguer right now thanks to his strong eye and contact skills. 

He also is a bit better than some of the options the Guardians have in the bigs now, namely shortstop Gabriel Arias. While Arias hit his first homer of the season against the Dodgers (the first non-Chase DeLauter dinger the Guardians have hit all season), he’s still 2-for-19 with nine strikeouts. 

Removing him from the roster in place of Bazzana would have plenty of ripple effects (namely Brayan Rocchio needing to move back to shortstop), but navigating those ripples would be worth it given what Bazzana brings to the table. 

Whenever Griffin gets in a game, he’ll become the sixth player from the 2024 draft class to make their big league debut. Bazzana should become the seventh.