Travis Bazzana is a Prime 100 prospect thanks largely to an impactful left-handed stroke that enticed the Cleveland Guardians take him with the primary total decide of the 2024 draft. A 23-year-old second baseman from New South Wales, Australia who performed collegiately at Oregon State College — and is now with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers — Bazzana got here in at no. 54 in our 2026 rankings with a 50 FV.
How does the present model of Bazzana examine to the erstwhile Beaver who entered professional ball on the heels of an eye-opening 1.417 OPS junior marketing campaign? Is he principally the identical hitter, or has he made any significant changes to his setup or swing?
“There may be some delicate variations,” Bazzana instructed me previous to a current sport. “Not an excessive amount of intentional change. I’m all the time looking for my finest strikes, and finest swing, however I might say it’s fairly delicate. There are weeks the place I’m transferring at my finest, and there are weeks the place it would look slightly completely different, however I haven’t tried to overtake something since I obtained to skilled baseball.”
He did make one notable adjustment that might qualify as an intentional change, although it dates again to 2022-2023.
“The largest tweak got here in school, working at Driveline,” defined Bazzana, who has been coaching on the Seattle-area facility for the previous 4 years. “That’s the place I am going for my offseason assessments, and to proceed to work on my hitting. I made an enormous postural and setup adjustment from freshman to sophomore yr.
“There was additionally some bat-speed work at the moment,” he added. “Since then, it has principally simply been checking up, making an attempt to enhance on little particulars and extra finer issues in my swing. Getting plenty of reps off the Trajekt machine is one other factor I’ve performed there.”
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I used to be already conscious of his postural adjustment due to a 2023 article on the Driveline weblog, however I needed to listen to about it straight from him. What precisely did Bazzana change, and what was the reasoning behind it?
“We had been specializing in how I might enhance my offensive manufacturing,” he stated. “One of many issues is that I used to be very bent over the plate, and creating plenty of aspect and ahead… I didn’t have a lot house to rotate, due to how my physique was positioned. I made a setup change the place I sort of put my palms again and my entrance elbow up. That cleaned up plenty of my posture and gave me house for my barrel to maneuver by means of the zone slightly higher. That was once I was about 19 years previous.”
Since that point, as he instructed me on the onset of the interview, issues have been kind of establishment — albeit with the delicate variations.
“There are consistently issues progressing, however there was no drastic change in what I’m making an attempt to do within the field, or how I’m transferring,” Bazzana stated. “It’s simply fixed tweaks to be at my finest. In the end, I wish to be in a greater place on daily basis than I used to be the day earlier than, however it doesn’t work that method. Some weeks it’s pretty much as good as you need it to be, and in different weeks it’s not.”
Bazzana’s batting observe, which preceded our dialog, caught my consideration. The hassle degree of his swings within the rounds assorted, and whereas that’s under no circumstances unusual, his heftiest hacks appeared to come back in his penultimate spherical, not within the last one the place letting unfastened is extra a norm.
The place does his sport swing match into that equation?
“Once I’m at my finest, it’s undoubtedly a managed aggression,” Bazzana stated. “I’d love for it to be a really managed load, and be swinging at a superb 85%. If it’s very aggressive and 100%, that’s in all probability not the place I need it to be. After which, if I used to be swinging sluggish at 50%, I would make a contact extra contact, however I wouldn’t be driving the ball into the gaps as a lot.”
Bazzana has the flexibility to bash, and as our prospect analyst crew wrote in February, “His swing is geared to generate a number of pull-side launch, a lot that we’re inclined to mission that Bazzana produces extra sport energy than his uncooked power would ordinarily counsel.”
Does he think about himself an influence hitter?
“An influence hitter? Once I’m going properly, I’d prefer to suppose so,” Bazzana stated. “However usually, I simply attempt to be as full a hitter as I will be. Energy is one thing I can proceed to hopefully put out, however it’s undoubtedly not the very first thing that comes up once I consider myself as a hitter. I believe I can get to energy, however I’m additionally not 6’5” and 250 [pounds] and launching balls bottom over fences. I’m solely 6-foot — just below 6-foot — and 200 kilos.”
Bazzana’s writeup in our Prime 100 rundown included the road, “He’s hyper-selective and, irrespective of the rely or pitch kind, he chases a full two normal deviations much less typically than the common huge leaguer.” With that in thoughts, my penultimate query was about his method. What’s he on the lookout for when he stands on the dish?
“In school, I used to be very a lot hunt heater and regulate,” he recalled. “Plenty of occasions, that’s how one can method guys in skilled baseball, however an method adjustment I’ve made has been pulling the set off on extra secondary pitches within the zone earlier in counts. Professionals have a greater really feel for his or her secondary pitches. They’re going to land them extra typically, to allow them to steal strikes a lot simpler than school pitchers usually can. I’ve discovered that I can reap the benefits of the hanging slider, or the glove-side changeup that possibly doesn’t have the motion the pitcher desires. But it surely is determined by the pitcher. Whatever the degree, you all the time must be able to hit the fastball.”
Most each interview I’ve carried out in recent times has concluded with the identical query: Is there anything I ought to be asking you?
“Hmm… that’s an attention-grabbing one,” Bazzana replied. “I’m stumped. Really, no. You must ask me what I think about an important factor about hitting.”
So I did.
“It’s psychological,” Bazzana stated. “It’s all confidence and profiting from each at-bat. The presence you’re taking to the field… José Ramírez is our prime instance, with the Guardians. All the greats do it. It’s the way in which they carry themselves into the field. They’ve pure confidence in themselves, on every pitch. That’s how I attempt to be.”