CLEVELAND -- Get ready, Guardians fans. The No. 1 overall pick is set to begin his professional career as early as next week.

Travis Bazzana and his family came to Progressive Field on Friday afternoon as he signed his contract with the Guardians. Sources told MLB Pipeline¡¯s Jim Callis that the deal was worth $8,950,000, which is well under the $10,570,000 slot value. But after all the terms were worked out, the group decided that Bazzana could join High-A Lake County at the end of next week to get his professional career started as quickly as possible.

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It¡¯s another surreal concept for the Australian middle infielder to process. Not only was he the first player from his country to be taken No. 1 overall in the Draft, not only did he spend the day meeting players he has watched on television for years, not only did he just make his dreams come true by signing with a Major League Baseball team, but Bazzana finally has a start date of when fantasy becomes reality.

¡°You watch Jos¨¦ Ram¨ªrez highlights over and over since 2017,¡± Bazzana said. ¡°Then you get out there and you get to say, ¡®What¡¯s up¡¯ to him. I think that¡¯s when it sinks in a little bit.¡±

There Bazzana was, standing in foul territory down the third-base line, watching Ram¨ªrez take ground balls. He was introducing himself to a big league coaching staff he hopes to be playing for as soon as possible. And his family, who traveled from Sydney, Australia (which is just about 20 hours on a plane to get to Cleveland ) stood behind him, just taking it all in.

¡°Witness me seeing my dreams play out; I¡¯m sure it¡¯s pretty cool for them,¡± said Bazzana, who was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 1 Draft prospect. ¡°But they¡¯ve played such a large role in that and always kept me grounded to keep moving forward and not ride the highs and lows. Just make the right decisions.¡±

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The plan will be to keep Bazzana in downtown Cleveland for a few days so that he can get acclimated with the important faces in the organization before he heads down the road to Lake County. He¡¯s planning to work out with the big league club over the weekend, too, which will be yet another dreamlike moment for him. Everything has happened so quickly this past week after he was drafted on Sunday night that it took until his feet hit the Progressive Field grass on Friday for it all to sink in.

Just six days ago, Bazzana hoped this would be his future, but he wasn¡¯t positive that would be the case. It wasn¡¯t until 20 or 25 minutes before the Draft began that he and the Guardians agreed to terms to select him with the franchise¡¯s first ever No. 1 overall pick. But he knew, from hours of research, at the time his collegiate season at Oregon State ended that this was the organization he wanted to join.

¡°I had this idea,¡± Bazzana said, ¡°that the culture at the big league level, the young players, the intelligence of the organization and the consistency of winning over the past 10 years put the Guards in such a powerful spot for me in terms of where I wanted to be.¡±

Rated as best pure hitter in the Draft, Bazzana posted a slash line of .407/.568/.911 this year and launched a school-record 28 homers.

This has been a dream for Bazzana since he was playing 6-and-under T-ball (at just 3 years old). As he got older, he was determined to make it happen by studying everything about the game.

¡°I began to grasp at 14, 15 that I wasn¡¯t going to set any limits on where I could take it,¡± Bazzana said, ¡°and not be afraid of the tough conversations and also not be afraid of searching for places to grow in the game and weaknesses you can turn into strengths.¡±

Yes, it¡¯s a dream come true for Bazzana. But it¡¯s also a dream for the Guardians to sign someone who seems so perfect for this organization, especially well under slot value. The team wanted to make sure it was able to spread out its financial resources all through the Draft and not just at No. 1. He was on board, and now the Bazzana era is set to begin.

¡°We worked through that and got to a number that was right,¡± Bazzana said. ¡°I wanted to be a Guardian.¡±