Travis Bazzana Buzz is LOUD: Justin'side Baseball

Breaking down the first full week of Guardians minor league action in 2025

I’m bringing back my Justin’side baseball column, a weekly look at the storylines, performances and observations I’ve collected around the Cleveland Guardians, mostly the minor league system and occasionally the big league club. I’ll include any information I collect from games covered in person and watched online. This will be for subscribers only as we get a few columns into the season, so make sure you are subscribed for all of the columns. I appreciate your support and interesting…and with that..

The buzz on Travis Bazzana is going to get loud quickly if he carries this hot start all month. Granted, he’s not going hit .538/.600/.846 all year with a .750 BABIP. But he looks less caught in between now as he’s swinging the bat as when he was settling in to pro ball last fall. He’s still quite passive (26.7 K% on a 5.9% Swinging Strike rate - typically the K% is 2x the swinging strike rate, so he should be something around 12%-15%). He’s taking walks, which he will continue to do and he’s even driving the ball the other way with authority. You’d like to see him pulling the ball a little more, but showing power the other way isn’t something he did a ton of college or at all in the minors last year.

Bazzana does a good job creating good angles and getting his barrel on plane with a pitch to drive it as you can see here. I think this shows great body movement and control to square this pitch up at this angle and drive it the way he did.

A lot of people wonder when he’ll get the bump to Columbus and then Cleveland. I don’t see the Guardians making that call at least into summer, because Juan Brito is still handling second there and until that changes, they’ll want Bazzana playing everyday anyway. But Brito shouldn’t block Bazzana if he’s coming on like a freight train. Brito can play other positions and accommodate Bazzana and it would be great if he was in Columbus by June.

What a show of belief in Braylon Doughty that the Guardians had their 2024 Comp A pick pick the Opening Day assignment in Lynchburg. The new 175 domestic roster limit has forced the Guardians hand a little by needing to fill rosters with less players, but Doughty is mature and good enough to be ready for such an assignment despite being in high school this time last year. Doughty showed that to be true in his first start I thought.

An error, and then Doughty getting late to cover the bag, then allowing a run before even recording an out didn’t rattle him. He recovered to strike out the side in the first after that happened, and then went on to strikeout six hitters in three innings after that, showing poise and good stuff. Both of his breaking balls looked sharp with good movement, a big curve with tight movement, and then a sweeper with plenty of tilt. His fastball was 93-95 and got misses in the zone and he showed good sequencing on it. I’m sure there will be bumps along the way as there are for any prospects, especially high school pitchers, but this is an impressive start from a prep pitcher I can remember in this system.

Andrew Walters has shown no signs of the shoulder issues in spring training. He’s had some walks, but he’s throwing 95-97 with 17-20 inches of vertical break on his fastball and ripping off some good sliders. He should replace Triston McKenzie if McKenzie isn’t trustworthy, because that bullpen needs more arms it can trust to not lean on Cade Smith and Hunter Gaddis as much as it can, and McKenzie will only get used in games where it’s lopsided anyways. Walters can fill in both sides of a game.

There were some reports coming into the season that Austin Peterson might have a little velocity bump. He didn’t really show it in the Spring Breakout game, where he struggled with command. But indeed at Richmond in his first start he allowed a hit and struck out four in four innings, showing his usual good slider and bumping 93-95 at times. He’s typically 90-92 and tops at 94, so we’ll see if this holds. Peterson has the kind of extension the Guardians love in their pitchers delivery, so 93-95 makes it even better.

In year two of pro ball, I can see Ralphy Velazquez having a breakout type season. He hasn’t had many hits to start the year, but he has worked five walks so far and is not chasing out of the zone. When he did make contact, he hit a 432 foot blast. His swing looks tighter and shorter, and he looks more on time this year than he did as he wore down late last year, tired from a long season. He was one of the most talked about hitters at the Futures Game in batting practice and I think he’ll carry that into this year. He probably won’t catch anymore, if he does it will be very little. Cleveland would like him to be able to keep it alive, as they said he was limited by a thumb injury last year. He’ll likely be a first base/outfielder that might be able to catch. I think the outcome we’re looking for here is something Kyle Schwarber related or a really good version of David Fry.

It’s a real bummer we’re not going to see Angel Genao until June with his shoulder injury. He was healthy and looked good in the Spring Breakout game. He might start back in Lake County when he gets back but hopefully finishes the year in Akron. This could have been a big year for him prospect wise building off last year’s breakout but that will likely be limited even when he does come back now as he shakes off the rust.

I don’t think it’s a thing yet, but I am watching Will Wilson early on in Columbus. He’s hitting the ball hard as he did in spring training. Wilson doesn’t swing and miss a ton, doesn’t chase but hasn’t found success in the minors even as a former first rounder. This move made a ton of sense for Cleveland to give him a shot as a minor league rule 5 pick and see if they can figure something out with him. It’s something interesting to watch as the year goes on.

It was nice to see Jacob Zibin make his pro debut on April 6. It wasn’t overly impressive (three innings, two walks, two strikeouts). Errors allowed unearned runs. He was in the low-90s with his fastball and looked rusty which makes sense since he hasn’t started a real game since his high school days in 2022. He’s missed two years with multiple arm surgeries. Cleveland paid him like a near first round pick as a 10th rounder that year, so clearly they were high on him. But given the time missed, it’s going to require patience with him coming back.

Jorge Burgos hit 18 homers a year ago but didn’t really make a lot of contact otherwise and didn’t show much of an approach. He’s 23 and has power as well as some good bat speed. We’ll see if that ever translates into real results long term, but it did the first weekend.

Rafe Schlesinger also saw a bit of a velo bump to 95 early on, striking out four and walking one in his first outing for three innings. He had seen 97 in college at times, but he mostly settled in around 90-92 in college similar to Austin Peterson. A velo bump for him as well would give him added juice with his deceptive arm angle. He probably shouldn’t pitch at Lynchburg long but who knows how Cleveland will handle that.

Parker Messick also was showing added velo in spring and that carried into his first start. He hit 96, the fastest I’ve ever seen him throwing. He’s still sitting around 92-94, but being able to reach for 95-96 is going to help him immensely with his deception and control. I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see him in the majors this year.

Juan Brito has gotten himself off to a good start. He’s making contact and pulling the ball in the air. Gabriel Arias hasn’t been hurting himself in the majors yet so Brito will stay put for now. I do wonder though if he keeps hitting and Bazzana keep putting pressure on them, if they’ll consider Juan Brito in right field. He doesn’t have Johnathan Rodriguez’s arm, but he can’t be any worse defensively and he can also handle second, third and first, plus DH occasionally if he can help them offensively while they get nothing from right field.

Jacob Cozart showed some pop and patience in the opening weekend but had two errors in the first weekend as well. His defense is his biggest strength and I thought some of his defensive issues last year when he got to Lake County had more to do with playing in college and then the long year in the pros. We’ll see if he finds more consistency throughout the year, but he’s going to have to be a strong defender to make up for any contact issues he’ll have, which I do expect there to be some.

Jackson Humphries made his High-A debut and showed good stuff at times - he did fan six. He was only 89-92 and hit 93 a few times. But he was all over the place, bouncing balls in the dirt and his breaking stuff clearly has big spin, but it seemed very loose at times and looks like things need to be tightened up. I’m still high on the stuff, and it’s early, but clearly a work in progress so far.