Mariners Acquire Josh Naylor

The Mariners and Diamondbacks made the first significant move of deadline season on Thursday evening. Seattle acquired first baseman Josh Naylor for rookie left-hander Brandyn Garcia and pitching prospect Ashton Izzi. Naylor and Garcia are each on the 40-man roster, so no additional moves were required in that regard. The D-Backs recalled Tristin English to fill the spot on the active roster.

Naylor hasn’t gotten quite the same amount of deadline hype as now former teammate Eugenio Suárez, whose power barrage makes him the top impending free agent hitter available. The 28-year-old first baseman is having a strong year in his own right, though. Naylor is hitting .292/.360/.447 with 11 homers in nearly 400 trips to the dish. He has even chipped in a career-high 11 stolen bases in 13 attempts. There may not have been a better left-handed rental bat on the market.

The former first-round pick is on the move for the second time in seven months. The Diamondbacks acquired Naylor from Cleveland for starting pitcher Slade Cecconi and the 70th overall draft pick over the winter. It was a more affordable means of addressing first base than re-signing Christian Walker, who secured a three-year contract that paid $20MM annually from the Astros. While Naylor doesn’t provide the same Gold Glove defense that Walker offers, he has been a well above-average hitter for a fourth straight season. Last year’s career-best 31 home runs looks like an outlier, but he has cut his strikeout rate to a personal-low 12.4% clip and should hit between 15-20 homers.

Seattle has long had a reputation as a team that desperately needs offense to complement a loaded pitching staff. That has been true in prior seasons but is not so much the case this year. The Mariners rank sixth in home runs and 10th in runs scored. They’re middle-of-the-pack in batting average and rank among the top ten in both on-base percentage and slugging. That’s no small feat for a team that plays its home games at the extremely pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park. Seattle has an MLB-best .270 batting average and .346 OBP on the road, and only the Brewers and Cubs have scored more runs away from home.

Naylor deepens the group. He’ll take the everyday first base job from Luke Raley, who should see most of his time in right field. Dominic Canzone has been on fire since Seattle recalled him from Triple-A on June 9. He now projects as a bench bat, though he could also get into the lineup at designated hitter if the Mariners feel comfortable using Jorge Polanco a little more frequently between second and third base.

That’s all dependent on what other moves Seattle has in store. Earlier this week, Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported that the Mariners considered a reunion with Suárez to be their top deadline priority, even more so than the idea of adding Naylor. The Mariners will reportedly continue to push to add Suárez as well. He’s a cleaner positional fit — he’d be a massive upgrade at third base over Ben Williamson — but the Diamondbacks will command a better return than they received for Naylor.

That also demonstrates that the M’s are working with greater financial flexibility than they had over the offseason, as has been reported by multiple Seattle beat writers in recent weeks. Naylor is playing on a $10.9MM salary, nearly $4MM of which the Mariners are taking on. Suárez is owed more than $5MM of his $15MM salary. The Mariners have fallen six games back of the Astros in the AL West, but they’re clearly willing to invest as they try to at least lock down a Wild Card berth.

This is the first of multiple dominoes to fall for the Diamondbacks. Any hope they had of avoiding a sell-off when they swept the Cardinals coming out of the All-Star Break is gone. They negated the St. Louis series by getting swept at home by Houston earlier this week. They’re back to three games below .500 and 5.5 out of a playoff spot with four teams to jump. The front office is resigned to the unlikelihood of closing that gap with an injury-riddled pitching staff.

Arizona is prioritizing controllable pitching in their deadline returns. They get a pair of young arms in their first deal of the summer. Garcia, 25, should jump right into the big league bullpen. The 6’4″ southpaw was just promoted to the big leagues on Monday. He has pitched twice, giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits and three walks while recording one strikeout. He’s averaging 97 MPH on his sinker and has two distinct breaking pitches — a mid-80s sweeper and a cutter/slider that sits in the upper 80s.

Garcia was Seattle’s 11th-round pick out of Texas A&M in 2023. He ranked 13th among Seattle prospects at MLB Pipeline and 19th at Baseball America. Both outlets credit him with a promising sinker-slider combination. Garcia’s lack of a viable changeup and fringe command pushed him to the bullpen for the first time this season. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reports that the D-Backs also view him as a reliever and don’t intend to build him back up to start. Garcia has combined for a 3.51 ERA with a 28.2% strikeout rate and elevated 11.4% walk percentage in 32 appearances between the top two minor league levels.

Izzi, 21, is a long-term development play. Seattle took him in the fourth round of the 2022 draft out of an Illinois high school. He pitched well in Low-A last season but has struggled to a 5.51 ERA across 12 starts in High-A this year. He has punched out a quarter of batters faced with a reasonable 9.7% walk rate, suggesting there’s some poor fortune in that earned run average. The 6’3″ right-hander ranked 13th among Seattle farmhands at Baseball America and 16th at MLB Pipeline. He has a mid-90s fastball and the chance for a three-pitch mix that could allow him to stick as a starter if his command continues to develop.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Mariners were acquiring Naylor. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had Garcia and Izzi going back to Arizona. Respective images courtesy of Denis Poroy and Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images.