Even the most ardent Josh Naylor fan wouldn’t have seen this coming.
Naylor has played 11 games since his trade to the Seattle Mariners. In that span, Naylor has eight stolen bases.
He’s a perfect 8-for-8, too, not having been caught.
No one in this span has more steals than Naylor does, per Just Baseball.
What in the world?
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Naylor is a 5-foot-10, 235-pound first baseman. That’s not exactly the prototype for a base stealer.
His previous career-high in steals in a season was 10, in 2023 with the Guardians.
Now, he has 19, having already swiped 11 bags in 93 games with Arizona and adding these eight in just 11 games with the Mariners.
If you’re wondering, Naylor is on a pace that would give him 117 steals in 162 games.
Maybe he’s getting pointers from catcher Cal Raleigh, who also has set a career-high in steals this season at 235 pounds.
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It’s likely that Naylor is just energized by a new team and a playoff race and is doing what he can to help win games.
Thus far, Naylor is batting just .244 with two homers in the 11 games. But he’s gained eight extra bags just by being a thief out on the base paths.
If he keeps doing that, and if the rest of the swing comes around a little bit in the weeks ahead, Naylor will look like an even better trade deadline pickup than expected for Seattle. And even if he slows down, Naylor has already made quite an initial impression on his teammates.
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