Seattle Mariners acquire Josh Naylor from Arizona Diamondbacks

Seattle Mariners acquire Josh Naylor from Arizona Diamondbacks

Continuing to follow the breaking news out of Major League Baseball, we have our first major move ahead of the trade deadline. On the same day the Diamondbacks said they would be sellers, they traded first baseman Josh Naylor to the Mariners. Seattle sending two pitching prospects to Arizona, Brandon Garcia and Ashton Izzy. Both top 20 in the Mariners organization. Naylor hitting 292, 11 home runs, 59 RBI this season. and he doesn’t strike out a lot which is extremely valuable when you head into the postseason right he was an all-star last year with Cleveland 31 homers 108 RBI’s traded last winner to Arizona he’s a free agent after this season but this is an instant upgrade and you want to talk about instant instant upgrade well Mariners first baseman’s this season ranked 23rd in batting average 18th in OPS Josh Taylor third in batting average 11th in OPS in all of baseball. Get some instant analysis. Welcome in CBS Sports MLB writer Matt Snyder. Matt, this is a instant upgrade for Seattle. Your instant reaction here, Josh Naylor, to the Mariners. Well, I was pretty fired up about it for multiple reasons. First of all, let’s kind of get the ball rolling here a little bit. We hadn’t really seen any big moves. Now, we finally got one. And it shows I know the Diamondbacks talked about it earlier today, but now we know they are truly open for business. And that means Au Heno Suarez, Zack Gallon, Mel Kelly, probably all three also on the move. So, little bit of intrigue there on where those guys are going to go, but we can also focus on this move. And as you said, big big hole at first base for the Mariners. Instantly throwing Josh Naylor in there at first base. You’ve got an above average performer. Now, I know he hit 31 home runs last year, but that’s not nearly as indicative of who he is as a hitter compared to batting average guy on base percentage. He’s going to take those walks. And as you said, Hakee, not striking out. Just to have a first baseman, especially when you look at when you see a guy who’s bulky like that and you know, he has power, you would think, oh man, he probably strikes out a ton. He does not strike out that much and he hits average and he takes his walks. It’s kind of weird. Uh, but going to be very valuable for the Mariners in their offense. They are a high volume strikeout team. At least they have been to this point. You throw Naylor in at first base where they haven’t gotten much offense at all. You don’t add that many strikeouts to the lineup. This is a very very intriguing move. Where are you hitting Josh Naylor in the lineup? Are you hitting him behind the big dumper? Yeah, I think so. I mean, we talked about that before we got on the air and my my initial thought was you can put that on base percentage in front of Cal Raleigh, get another guy on base for Raleigh, but you’ve got JP Crawford who’s a lefty there, Julio Rodriguez in the two-hole. You could always drop Rodriguez down, but then you’ve got lefty lefty before Raleigh. Um I think leaving Julio in the two-hole there with Naylor or with Raleigh and then Naylor would be really really good for helping Julio improve and that Mariners do need him to hit better in the second half if they have designs on the AOS. And then you drop Randy Rosarena down to the five hole and remember just recently he hit 10 home runs in 14 games there in All-Star season for him. Now you’re looking at a a quality top five there. Not toward the top of the league or anything. Uh Crawford and Julio to this point haven’t been good enough to say that. But 345 Raleigh Naylor Rosarena really really impressive. Well, you got to think too, right? Seattle does not want to waste what will be the greatest season by a catcher in MLA history. So you got to make moves. Um he’s still very young in his career. Josh Naylor’s only 28 years old and and I get it. It’s a it’s a rental unless you decide to extend him beyond this season, but this might be a long-term uh option for them. Now, that’s down the road here. But when you look at what Josh Naylor gives you, uh Matt, this is a huge need that’s filled here at first base, less strikeouts. Um only a dozen qualified hitters strike out less often than Josh Naylor. So, I mean, this is a guy that’s going to get on base. He’s going to make things happen. And there’s going to be ducks on the pond. When you look at this move for Seattle, what does this tell you about where where they’re headed right now, firmly in the wildard race? Oh, I think they have designs on the American League West as well. They’re definitely firmly in the wild card race, but there’s always a chance that they could run the Astros down there. And if they do that, then all of a sudden, you never know, maybe the buy is in play. As bad as the Tigers look right now, they got destroyed tonight. They’ve lost 10 out of 11. You never know if all of a sudden one of those buy spots is open then if they could run the Astros down. Uh doesn’t look like anybody’s going to play with the Blue Jays at this point, but we know how that goes. Hot and cold, hot and cold throughout the season. The Mariners definitely have a chance to win the American League West. And while that is not likely, they do have a grasp on that wildard spot and we know from seeing the Rangers two years ago in this format, you can win the World Series from the wild card spot. And I do want to say another thing here. Obviously, I didn’t have this all planned out because I just found out Naylor was traded and hustled home and came on here. But another thing that occurs to me, as I mentioned, I know he hit the 31 home runs last year, but that’s not really what his game is all about. That just makes me like this move more for the Mariners because Team Oval Park suppresses power more than any other park in all of baseball. And if they got a guy who’s just a power hitter, let’s say a Pete Alonzo type, if they would have signed Pete Alonzo in the offseason, and then he loses his home runs, kind of loses almost all of his game. Like remember a long time ago, Richie Saxon going there, for example, if you take just the home run away from somebody, that’s all they do. The player kind of loses his personality at the plate. Well, Josh Naylor is an average hitter who gets on base and provides some power and he doesn’t strike out. So, the power is just a small component of his entire offensive game. And I really think that he could thrive in this lineup because, yeah, he’ll lose some home runs, but that’s not what he’s all about. You said Richie Sex in there, also a Cleveland guy, too. Uh, they ended up playing uh with the Seattle Mariners. Uh Josh Naylor, uh, this guy, like I say this with all respect, you know, I covered him in Cleveland. He’s a psycho. Like, he when the game, he is locked in. Like we saw him in 2022 against the White Socks, the whole thing like they fed me, they fed me. He becomes a little bit of a villain. Then he’s rocking the baby against Gar in 2022. And he’s sort of that that that bravado that that that person personality’s kind of softened a little bit since he went to Arizona. not as boisterous. But then we’ve seen when they celebrate postgame, he gets upset and there’s a meme out there of him where he looks like, you know, he’s just pulling the late shift at like, you know, a fast food chain like this guy plays Major League Baseball. He loves the game. I can tell you that he loves the game and now he’s going to get resuscitated his career. He’s going to have feel new energy going to Seattle. Yeah. A and now that you get this kind of player who has playoff experience in a young locker room that Matt that’s invaluable and I Randy Rosarena has that as well and I also think a Rosarin is a type of guy who can play with a little bit of a swagger and a little bit of an edge too and I think Kell Raleigh has that in him. This you can kind of start setting up where you could see this could be more than kind of as you alluded to there this could be more than just his numbers injecting him into the offense. This could be an injection of personality into the clubhouse. They had other guys rally around and Naylor have both been deep into the playoffs. They can talk to a lot of the young guys about that. I think there are a lot of different ways in which this could be a really really big move for the Mars. And just upon first glance, it doesn’t really even look like they gave that much up. Obviously, a first baseman heading to free agency, you’re not going to get a ton if you’re the Diamondbacks, but like from the Mariners perspective, kind of seems like a no-brainer deal. They really needed a first baseman. There weren’t that many first baseman known to be out there. If any other teams were going to be betting on a first baseman, Naylor was going to be the first guy that they they looked at. The mayors went out and said, “We’re going to get ahead of everybody else. We’re going to grab Naylor right now.” I think it’s a great move. How much does this deal getting done between Seattle and Arizona? How much does it perhaps aid Seattle in acquiring Gino Suarez? Because, you know, the top the top destination for Suarez, according to the rumors and reports here, has been the New York Yankees. But now if Seattle and Arizona have already made a deal and they could go get Gino Suarez, who is a former M himself? Yeah. But are you concerned that that deal would have got done at the same time or do you think that hey, they could still go back and make a deal with Arizona after they already got one done? You’d think that it would be almost a package deal. Like how do you think this plays out? Yeah, I know it’s different in the offseason, but remember the Cubs traded for Kyle Tucker and then three or four weeks later they traded for Ryan Presley. If you’re familiar with the front office and you just made a move with them and you talk a lot with each other, yeah, you can always go back. You can circle back. We don’t know for sure if Jerry Dotto and Mike Hayesen discussed Deu Henio Suarez or if they just said, “Let’s just do Naylor now.” And Hazen said, “Look, I’m going to have six, seven teams ringing my phone off the hook about Suarez. Can we just do Naylor now and circle back?” And Dotto probably said yes because Dotto loves to talk trade and he’ll talk to anybody about any trade. So, I don’t think this moves the needle either way on that. Like I don’t think oh if if they were going to get Naylor they would have had to do Suarez in the same deal. No that’s not true but I don’t think it necessarily gives them an advantage and I don’t think it’s a disadvantage at all either. I think it’s just hey he could circle back. There’s another week to go here. Yeah they could still go back and get him. I wouldn’t say they’re the favorites or anything. I think that teams are going to be more desperate and uh the Diamondbacks are going to get more out of somebody like the Cubs or the Yankees. Who’s more likely to get dealt next Suarez Gallon or Mel Kelly? I think that they’re gonna probably Zack Gallon. I’ll say Gallon because he’s not having the best year and there are a lot of teams who are desperate for to not have to to plug their rotation up another time through and I think that Hazen is going to be content to let the offers roll in for Suarez until July 31st. I think he’s going to be a last day guy. Uh this is going to be interesting. I I I as a a broadcaster and a fan, I hope that they leave a couple morsels for us, a couple crumbs next Thursday. Yeah, we don’t want everything uh to be done ahead of time. It’s nice to get one now, maybe one over the weekend or whatever, but like, you know, we want to have we want to have activity on the deadline. Like, right, we need a big deadline day. Absolutely. I I could see it like there were a lot of teams in limbo, including the Diamondbacks just a few days ago looking like, man, is this all going to have to happen on July 31st? Well, no. We got one on July 24th, but there’s still a waiting game for a lot of teams who look like they might be sellers. All right, Matt Snder here on CBS Sports HQ. Stay by the computer, stay by the Zoom call. All right, so here’s a look at the reported trade details. The Mariners get an instant upgrade, getting Josh Naylor. Again, he ranks third in batting average, 11th in OPS in all of baseball this season. And the Dbacks are going to get a couple of pitching prospects in Brandon Garcia and Ashton Izzy. Both top 20 in the Seattle organization. For the Mariners, who are firmly in the wildcard race, an instant upgrade at first base. [Music]

Matt Snyder joins CBS Sports HQ to react to Josh Naylor being acquired by the Mariners.

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