The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s daily MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. The Guardians drafted Travis Bazzana with the first pick, the Nats and Royals hooked up on a trade, it’s an All-Star extravaganza and we have an oral history on my favorite player: Adrián Beltré.
I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup! The mystery has been revealed: The Guardians took Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana with last night’s first pick of the 2024 MLB Draft. The Australian becomes the second Oregon State player to be taken first overall ( Adley Rutschman , 2019), and joins a fellow Beaver in the Guardians organization: Steven Kwan was taken in the fifth round in 2018. Staying in Ohio, the Reds had the second pick, and many people expected to hear the name of Georgia outfielder Charlie Condon .
Instead, Cincy swerved by picking RHP Chase Burns of Wake Forest. It’s the Reds’ second year in a row taking a Wake Forest starter in the first round; last year, it was Rhett Lowder . Advertisement Condon went to the Rockies with the third pick , before Oakland took first baseman Nick Kurtz (Wake Forest) and the White Sox took LHP Hagen Smith (Arkansas) to round out the top five.
For the full rundown of yesterday’s picks (and updates as picks resume today at 2 p.m. ET), here’s our draft live blog , but before we go, do you want to hear the hands-down funniest part of the draft? The Angels (.
