Travis Bazzana’s wild Guardians season encapsulated by 10th-place Rookie of the Year finish 

On July 14, Travis Bazzana made his All-Star Game debut for the American League, where he entered in the sixth inning as a defensive substitute. Although Bazzana didn’t make his big league debut until the end of April, he did enough in the first two-plus months of his big league career to earn a chance to show his stuff on one of the biggest stages in baseball. 

He may have gone 0-for-2 in the AL’s All-Star Game win, but it seemed like that appearance could be the thing that could help boost his Rookie of the Year case. 

Instead it ended up being the high-water mark of a confusing season. 

On Monday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced this year’s Rookie of the Year winners, where Bazzana finished at 10th, making him the third Guardian on the list behind Parker Messick (second-place) and Chase DeLauter (sixth-place). 

While Bazzana being on the list is still a positive since there are plenty of rookies who never come close to sniffing the Rookie of the Year leaderboard, it’s hard to ignore how much his ROY case fell off during his Midsummer swoon.

Travis Bazzana's struggles impacted his Rookie of the Year case

After bursting onto the scene with a productive May (.874 OPS in 28 games), Bazzana went ice cold in June (.644 OPS) due to some unusually high chase and a disproportionate number of ground balls. 

But things got even worse for him late in the season when he went just 18-for-79 in August with just three extra-base hits. While the Guardians were climbing up the American League Central standings, Bazzana seemed like an anchor at the bottom of the lineup. 

That said, he was able to turn things around in the final three weeks of the season. The key moment came on Sept. 4 when he came off the bench to slug an eighth inning, game-tying home run against the Tigers that was followed by a walk-off single two innings later. 

He ended up finishing the year with a 1.002 OPS in the final 19 games of the season. 

Bazzana earned an All-Star nod thanks to his red-hot first month and he helped salvage his season with a red-hot final month, but everything between those two marks was a bit of a roller coaster. 

Although that instability is a bit frustrating given some of his other draft compatriots have already won awards and put together record-setting seasons, Bazzana still showed enough in those positive spurts to show that he’s a worthy piece of the Guardians’ core alongside DeLauter and Messick.

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