Travis Bazzana becomes first Australian ever taken with top pick in Major League Baseball draft

(CNN) — The Cleveland Guardians selected Australian second baseman Travis Bazzana with the top pick in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday, the first time an Aussie has been taken in the first round – let alone with the first overall pick – for the world’s premier baseball league.

Bazzana, 21, played at Oregon State University for the past three years, and hit .407 with 28 home runs and 66 RBI this past season as a junior. He also played for Australia at the 2019 U18 World Cup.

With his selection by Cleveland, Bazzana will join a franchise with the best record in the American League and the second-best record in MLB as well as baseball’s No. 1 hitter, Steven Kwan, at the midseason All-Star break.

Thirty-eight Australians have previously played in MLB, according to baseball.com.au, and Bazzana said he sees his selection as a chance to grow the sport in his home country, where Australian rules football, rugby, soccer and cricket dominate sports spectatorship.

Bazzana was a talented cricket player in his youth and captained Turramurra High School in Sydney’s northern suburbs to its first-ever state championship in that sport, according to his Oregon State University biography.

But he told ESPN Australia recently that he was just “more passionate” about baseball than cricket.

“If there was extra time for me to put practice into something, it was baseball and I loved it, and I’d say I was probably a little bit better at baseball than I was at cricket,” he said.

Now he hopes his pick at the top of the MLB Draft will translate into more Australians dreaming of the baseball diamond.

“Hopefully [it’ll] change the narrative of baseball there … Give belief to the players back home to go do great things in the US and pursue a Major League dream. Hopefully, this is a step towards that,” he said on ESPN.

Bazzana stands to get a more than $10.6 million payout, an amount assigned by MLB’s bonus pool formula for draft picks.

The Guardians were a long shot to get the top pick but won the draft lottery last December with only a  2% chance to do so. It’s the first time the Cleveland franchise, formerly known as the Indians, has had the top pick in the draft.

“We’re bananas for Bazzana,” the Guardians posted on their X page.

“Dude brings it all to the table, and we’ve got quite the appetite,” the team said in another post.

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said Bazzana had “tapped into every resource possible to make himself the best player he can possibly be.”

“For as great as player as Travis is … he is an equal if not more impressive person with the way in which he’s gone about making this a reality and becoming the No. 1 pick,” he said.

When Bazzana makes his Cleveland debut remains to be seen. Collegiate players often spend time in the American minor league system before advancing to the Major League.

But last season’s No. 1 pick, pitcher Paul Skenes, has stepped in to become a starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates and has posted a 6-0 record with a 1.90 earned run average going into the All-Star break.

After Cleveland took Bazzana, the Cincinnati Reds selected Wake Forest pitcher Chase Burns with the second overall pick. The 21-year-old finished the season with a 2.70 ERA and 191 strikeouts – the most in NCAA Division I this season.

The Colorado Rockies selected University of Georgia outfielder and third baseman Charlie Condon with the third overall pick. The 2024 Golden Spikes Winner – awarded to the best collegiate player, hit .433 and 37 home runs this season.

The MLB Draft continues through July 16 ahead of the MLB All-Star game at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.

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