Bazzana tops Guardians org in this stat after latest Triple-A homer
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When you hit the ball as consistently hard as Travis Bazzana does, good things are bound to happen.
The Guardians’ No. 1 prospect whistled his second homer of the year Thursday night in Triple-A Columbus’ 6-5 loss in extra innings to Buffalo at Sahlen Field. Coming off the bat at 110.1 mph, it marked Bazzana’s second hardest-hit ball of the season, a genuine frozen rope that registered just a 22-degree launch angle before reaching the right-field seats.
Thus far in 2026, only José Ramírez’s homer vs. Atlanta on April 11 was hit at a lower launch angle and left the yard for a Guardians roundtripper.
Being an outlier in comparison to the big league squad has been an early-season trend for Bazzana, the first overall pick in the 2024 Draft. He has put six balls in play at 108 mph or higher across his 22 games, more than any Guardians hitter (Chase DeLauter is the closest, with five).
It’s been a steady stream of production for MLB’s No. 16 prospect to open the year. Bazzana has reached base in each of his past 11 contests, collecting at least one hit in 10 of those games. Of his 25 hits this season, 13 have gone for extra bases, as he’s slashing .284/.406/.500 and entered the night with a 138 wRC+, which is right in line with the 137 mark he posted across 84 games last season.
Through play Thursday, Guardians second basemen rank last in the Majors in batting average (.181) and hits (15) with one home run and a pedestrian .557 OPS. While Bazzana moonlighted at other positions as an amateur and in college, all of his defensive starts in the pros have come at second.
Earlier this month, MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo took stock of when Bazzana might arrive in Cleveland, using May 1 as a rough estimate. The duo came down on both sides of the debate, and while there’s still a week to go to see who will ultimately be proven right, Bazzana’s bat looks poised to have an impact either way.