Aussie 21yo baseballer Travis Bazzana set to make MLB history, earn $16 million payday

A 21-year-old Aussie is set to make sporting history, with the big hitter widely tipped to go No. 1 in the MLB Draft and take America by storm.

Australia's Travis Bazzana could go No. 1 in the MLB Draft.

Australian youngster Travis Bazzana is about to make sporting history.

The 21-year-old from Sydney is tipped to be the first Aussie ever to be taken in the first round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, to be held on Monday and Tuesday Australian time.

Bazzana grew up a keen cricketer and even captained his Turramurra High School team to its first ever state championship.

He started playing baseball in primary school and after making the switch from cricket to baseball at age 15, the rest is history.

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As a 15-year-old, Bazzana was by far the youngest in the Australian Baseball League when he made his debut for the Sydney Blue Sox in 2018.

He told The Book of Joe podcast: “I think a lot of my best friends were playing cricket and I was playing with them and enjoying it thoroughly, but I was always putting in the extra work for baseball. I’d be hitting baseballs before I went to go play my cricket game. But yeah, I had a great time playing cricket and did miss the sport after I fully kind of committed to baseball at sixteen.”

Bazzana told ESPN: “I guess from a young age, cricket in the backyard, baseball in the field and then at 10, I started playing cricket. Like, actually in clubs and representatively. But, baseball just was more, I was more passionate about it.

“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. So, it made it a little easier.”

Travis Bazzana has rewritten the college baseball record books. Picture: Oregon State

Since making the move to America to play college baseball for the Oregon Beavers, Bazzana has gone from strength to strength and broken all sorts of Oregon records.

Named the Pac-12 player of the year last season, Bazzana proved he is a serious power hitter, as well has a handy infielder and second baseman.

Bazzana is now Oregon’s all-time leader in home runs, stolen bases, runs scored, doubles, hits and walks while also holding the single-season record for homers, runs scored and total bases.

He’s impressed MLB scouts so much with his level-headed demeanour and ability to swing the bat, that several mock drafts have the Aussie poised to be picked at No. 1 in next week’s draft.

The Cleveland Guardians hold the No. 1 pick and Bazzana is among the handful of top prospects favoured to go No. 1.

Bazzana has been even the subject of a lengthy profile in The Athletic titled: “He’s an Aussie schooled in cricket. And he might be the top pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.”

MLB writer for The Score, Travis Sawchik, described Bazzana as “high floor, incredible production & makeup, plenty of bat speed, arguably the best swing decisions + contact skills of the college bats, already a strong batted-ball profile, glove that can stick at second base …

“He’s No. 1 on this couchscout’s board but it’s a strong top of class for college bats, of course,” Sawchik wrote on X:

“With so much pool cash, Guardians don’t need to overthink and can take their top guy.”

Travis Bazzana is an up and coming star of Australian baseball. Picture: Andrew Green/baseball.com.au

He hits home runs for fun. (Photo by Jeff Moreland/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Georgia’s Charlie Condon and West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt are other candidates for the top pick, but it would be a surprise if Bazzana falls lower than the No. 4 pick, held by the Oakland Athletics.

Players attending four-year colleges are eligible to be drafted after completing their junior year, or turning 21 years old. Bazzanna turns 22 in late August.

The pay packets for athletes in America’s big four sporting leagues are astronomical, and Bazzana could be about to receive life-changing money.

Cleveland has a record “pool bonus” of $18,334,000 ($A27.4m), with the first overall pick coming with a slot value of $10,570,600 ($A15.8m) — up 8.7 per cent from last season.

If he falls to the fourth pick, Bazzana would still pocket $8,370,800 ($A12.6m).

For context, last year’s No.1 overall pick Paul Skenes had a salary of $13.65 million for his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In comparison, Aussie NBA star Josh Giddey earned A$9.7 million last season and Oscar Piastri is earning a reported A$8.8 million in his second year with McLaren in Formula One.

USA Today, MLB.com and the Bleacher Report all project Bazzana to be taken by Cleveland with the No. 1 pick.

Bazzana is embracing the buzz around the draft and the prospect of joining the shortlist of Australians to play an MLB game.

“I’m feeling great. It’s exciting, it’s getting close and I’m starting to fathom that excitement a little more,” Bazzana told Nine’s Today this week.

“It’s a busy time, just sort of figuring out logistics with my agent and doing meetings with different teams, as well as preparing to play the back-end of the Minor League season.

“It’s a big thing … any 21-year-old college player becomes eligible for the draft. Basically, we’re trying to be the next prospects in MLB and teams scout year-round trying to figure out who the best prospect is.

“Going near the top-half of the first round is a pretty extensive pay cheque and it’s going to change my life.”

Bazzana is an infielder who can hit it a mile. (Photo by Amanda Loman/Getty Images)

Bazzana is a self professed “human performance nerd” who has fallen in love with baseball.

“I was lucky enough to be around it - my dad played a little bit when he was a junior and I have two older brothers who played,” he said.

“I just fell in love with it - I had cricket around me, I had soccer and rugby, all the regulars - but I just fell in love with baseball.

“I just stuck with it and it became my passion and my identity.”

In May, Jack O’Loughlin became Australia’s 38th Major League Baseball player when he suited up for the Oakland A’s.

The most high profile Aussie currently in the MLB is Liam Hendriks, who is a closing pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and a three-time All Star.

The 35-year-old won the MLB Comeback of the Year Award after returning to action following chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Originally published as Aussie 21yo baseballer Travis Bazzana set to make MLB history, earn $16 million payday