Australian Travis Bazzana selected No 1 by Cleveland Guardians in MLB draft

Australian second baseman Travis Bazzana was selected by the Cleveland Guardians with the first pick in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft on Sunday night.

Bazzana is the first second baseman to be selected first overall and also the first Australian to be selected in the first round of the MLB draft.

A former cricket, rugby and soccer player who came to the United States to play baseball for Oregon State, the 21-year-old batted .407 with 28 homers and 66 RBIs this season. He set an Oregon State single-season record by scoring 84 runs and hitting .911. Bazzana also stole 16 bases and had a .568 on-base percentage.

Bazzana grew up playing both cricket and baseball, but switched to baseball full-time at age 15 after moving to the US. “I was more passionate about it,” Bazzana told ESPN Australia. “If I had extra time to practice at anything, it was baseball and I loved it and I would say I was probably a little bit better at baseball than I was at cricket. So it made it a little bit easier.”

This year’s baseball team’s top pick was worth $10.6 million under the bonus pool system introduced in 2012.

Cleveland had the top pick for the first time since the draft began in 1965, winning a weighted lottery in December despite having a 2 percent chance. The lottery began last year as part of a provision in a collective bargaining agreement to discourage struggling teams from intentionally trying to get a top pick by cutting veterans.

Wake Forest right-hander Chase Burns went to Cincinnati with the No. 2 pick. The 21-year-old was 10-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 191 strikeouts and 30 walls over 100 innings in 16 starts. The Reds took Demon Deacons right-hander Rhett Lowder with the seventh overall selection last year.

Colorado took Georgia third baseman Charlie Condon with the third pick. Projected by some to play first, the 6-foot, 6-inch Condon led the NCAA this year with a .433 average and 37 homers. The 21-year-old homered in eight consecutive games from April 26 to May 9, one shy of the NCAA record, and won the Golden Spikes Award as baseball’s top amateur prospect.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was booed by the approximately 2,000 fans in attendance as he entered the venue through the doors and onto the stage.