Oregon State University second baseman Travis Bazzana was taken No. 1 overall in the 2024 Major League Baseball draft by the Cleveland Guardians on July 14th.
The Beavers’ standout player is the OSU’s career leader in hits and doubles, contributing to his appeal in the draft. The Guardians, are currently ranked 15th in MLB for batting average.
Bazzana is well-noted for his batting skills. In his final season at Oregon State, he batted .407 and set the single-season school record for home runs with 28.
Bazzana is the second Oregon State player to be drafted No. 1 overall, following Adley Rutschman in 2019. He is also the first second baseman ever to be selected first overall.
The Guardians, boasting the second best record in MLB, were assigned the pick in the MLB draft lottery. They had a 2% chance of obtaining the top slot.
Bazzana is the first international player selected with the No.1 overall pick in the MLB draft since Adrian Beltre in 1994.
The Guardian-to-be will now play at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, taking the memories and accomplishments from his career at Oregon State.
Clad in a blue t-shirt on a sweltering summer day, Bazzana was surrounded by family and friends as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called his name. Cheers erupted from the luxury box at Goss Stadium, where Bazzana held his viewing party for the draft.
This marks the Beavers’ continued success after the program was handed off from Pat Casey to Mitch Canham in 2020.
Bazzana will quickly head to Cleveland to become acquainted with his new team, saying “If I had to guess, I’ll head to Cleveland on Tuesday.”
As for the Beavers, Head Baseball Coach Mitch Canham was with Bazzana for the draft party, recalling, “It was very quiet as we were watching and waiting for the announcement to be made. I was speaking to Travis earlier in the day and he said that he felt like a kid again, waiting to meet Santa Claus… the immediate joy… you knew he was going to go today at some point, but seeing his name go first overall to a phenomenal organization… you’re fighting back tears, you just wanna give everyone a hug.”
Canham continued to praise Bazzana, “(Travis) is gonna show up early, he’s gonna work, he’s gonna continue to be a student of the game…he wants to win, he wants to be the best and he wants to make everyone around him better…that kind of makeup in the clubhouses is gonna help him be the best.”
Canham also said it was the Beavers’ scouting methods that have allowed the school to notch two No. 1 picks since 2019.
“We’re very picky when we go about our recruiting process; we want to make sure that first and foremost that they’re gonna be a great fit in the clubhouse. You have to identify talent, no doubt about it, but making sure that they’re a fit; it’s not just finding the best talent, but about finding guys that wanna work,” Canham said.
Bazzana smiled when it was his turn in front of the camera.
“My ability to continue to get better, just continuing to fight through ups and downs and continuing to progress as a player, year-to-year, week-to-week, month-to-month, I think I’m excited to show I can continue to do that throughout my career. I’m excited to show the way I play the game,” Bazzana said.
When recounting his chances to be the No. 1 pick, Bazzana said that “I never really counted it out, but I didn’t fathom that this would be something that would be reality until May, possibly a year ago. I thought that maybe I could come out of the draft class as a top pick, but I still understood this year that I couldn’t control how the picks turned out; Cleveland could have wanted something different, they could have wanted a pitcher, they could have wanted a right-handed hitter. I could have gone out and had my best season ever and still not have been the pick, so my thing was that I was going to go out and try to be the best position player in college baseball.”
The 2024 No. 1 pick also proffered his personal advice to those seeking to build skills in life, saying, “It’s hard to have success in anything if you don’t really believe it; you’ve got to be the first person to believe in whatever you want to do. It helps to be passionate about whatever it is, so find something that you’re passionate about and don’t let other people set a ceiling for you.”