SEATTLE — Most Mariners fans knew that Josh Naylor’s wife was expecting the couple’s newborn baby any day now. And knew it was a possibility that he could miss some playoff games because of it.

After all, it’s family first, always.

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That notion became reality on Monday when Dan Wilson took to the podium for the Mariners’ off-day workout and confirmed that Naylor is not with the team in Detroit. Wilson did not mention specifics, saying simply that it’s a personal matter.

Naylor’s loss, while absolutely understandable, is a tough one for this team. He could rejoin the Ms at any moment, but the team has to prepare as if he’s not.

“We’ll just cross that bridge as we get there. But I think we’ve got a plan in place, and we’ll just be ready when it happens,” Wilson said, adding “as we look at it and we — with all this stuff, we assess it day to day and it’s all shaping out. And we’ll be in good shape one way or the other.”

That’s always been the mentality of this team; if Naylor can’t give it a go, the most obvious option would be to put Luke Raley at first base. Luke played the position plenty for the Ms the last two seasons and would be seamless there. But it appears much more likely the M’s try Eugenio Suarez there, with Ben Williamson at third–if Naylor does in fact miss the game.

We’ll know much more when Dan Wilson meets the media for a pre-game press conference at 9:40 a.m. Seattle time.

Regardless of the lineup, as much of a loss as Naylor would be, even for the best of reasons, the M’s are confident, especially with Logan Gilbert on the mound.

“When he is on, obviously, he has that swing-and-miss stuff, and occasionally, especially with his secondaries, and his heater as well, he does just get a lot of either weak contact or a weak foul ball or just being able to get a little bit of contact and nothing that they can really do with it.

So he does get some foul balls. He does get into some deeper counts. But all in all, I think having that strikeout ability, especially in the postseason, is really a plus for you,” Wilson said of Gilbert.

“It’s going to be really fun the last couple of days, especially getting to see that in Seattle and knowing the fans have been waiting for that and going crazy. Both games were super exciting, too. So there’s been a lot of momentum both ways, but I’m happy we won the last one and expecting a fun time tomorrow,” said Gilbert.

Indeed, it has.

Now the M’s, on the heels of a thrilling win in Game 2, have a chance to take the series lead and be one win away from the American League Championship Series. The Tigers won’t make it easy in a series that has been nothing short of outstanding so far.