Cleveland Guardians No. 1 prospect Travis Bazzana got off to a bit of a slow start in the minors after the team drafted him first overall in 2024, but he kicked things into high gear last year and is starting to look like a finished product this Spring. He is now mashing homers for Australia in the World Baseball Classic and is making it clear that it’s only a matter of when, not if, he takes over second base for a long, long time in Cleveland.
The problem is that there are still some young moving parts ahead of him. Brayan Rocchio and Gabriel Arias have the middle infield locked down at the moment, but one insider recently wondered if one of them is just keeping Bazzana’s seat warm for a few months.
In a recent article for Cleveland.com, Paul Hoynes wrote about how he envisions the big-league roster accommodating Bazzana’s arrival when his time comes.
He believes the move will be to slide Rocchio back to shortstop and potentially send Arias back down or to the bench.
“If things unfold as you suggest, I think the easiest move would be to slide Brayan Rocchio from second to shortstop to make room for Bazzana. Last year, however, when Rocchio returned from Triple-A Columbus after being the opening-day shortstop, he was moved to second base and Gabriel Arias remained at short. Nothing is as simple as it looks,” Hoynes wrote.
The farm system is in a great place with Bazzana leading the charge and has the depth to deal with graduating him to the bigs. It will be interesting to see how all these pieces fit in, because if Bazzana is who he is supposed to be, that leaves Arias, Rocchio, and a handful of other prospects fighting for one spot over the next few years.
Rocchio and Arias both have work to do at the dish if they’re going to hang onto their jobs long term, because Bazzana is breathing down their necks already. There’s nothing like some friendly competition, and hopefully the top prospect getting ready to announce himself is enough to push everyone to another level.
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