The Mariners and Diamondbacks made the primary important transfer of deadline season on Thursday night. Seattle acquired first baseman Josh Naylor for rookie left-hander Brandyn Garcia and pitching prospect Ashton Izzi. Naylor and Garcia are every on the 40-man roster, so no further strikes had been required in that regard. The D-Backs recalled Tristin English to fill the spot on the lively roster.
Naylor hasn’t gotten fairly the identical quantity of deadline hype as now former teammate Eugenio Suárez, whose energy barrage makes him the highest impending free agent hitter accessible. The 28-year-old first baseman is having a robust 12 months in his personal proper, although. Naylor is hitting .292/.360/.447 with 11 homers in practically 400 journeys to the dish. He has even chipped in a career-high 11 stolen bases in 13 makes an attempt. There might not have been a greater left-handed rental bat available on the market.
The previous first-round choose is on the transfer for the second time in seven months. The Diamondbacks acquired Naylor from Cleveland for beginning pitcher Slade Cecconi and the seventieth general draft choose over the winter. It was a extra inexpensive technique of addressing first base than re-signing Christian Walker, who secured a three-year contract that paid $20MM yearly from the Astros. Whereas Naylor doesn’t present the identical Gold Glove protection that Walker provides, he has been a effectively above-average hitter for a fourth straight season. Final 12 months’s career-best 31 residence runs seems to be like an outlier, however he has minimize his strikeout charge to a personal-low 12.4% clip and will hit between 15-20 homers.
Seattle has lengthy had a repute as a group that desperately wants offense to enhance a loaded pitching workers. That has been true in prior seasons however isn’t a lot the case this 12 months. The Mariners rank sixth in residence runs and tenth in runs scored. They’re middle-of-the-pack in batting common and rank among the many prime ten in each on-base proportion and slugging. That’s no small feat for a group that performs its residence video games on the extraordinarily pitcher-friendly T-Cellular Park. Seattle has an MLB-best .270 batting common and .346 OBP on the highway, and solely the Brewers and Cubs have scored extra runs away from residence.
Naylor deepens the group. He’ll take the on a regular basis first base job from Luke Raley, who ought to see most of his time in proper subject. Dominic Canzone has been on fireplace since Seattle recalled him from Triple-A on June 9. He now tasks as a bench bat, although he may additionally get into the lineup at designated hitter if the Mariners really feel snug utilizing Jorge Polanco somewhat extra often between second and third base.
That’s all depending on what different strikes Seattle has in retailer. Earlier this week, Adam Jude of The Seattle Instances reported that the Mariners thought of a reunion with Suárez to be their prime deadline precedence, much more so than the concept of including Naylor. The Mariners will reportedly proceed to push so as to add Suárez as effectively. He’s a cleaner positional match — he’d be a large improve at third base over Ben Williamson — however the Diamondbacks will command a greater return than they acquired for Naylor.
That additionally demonstrates that the M’s are working with better monetary flexibility than they’d over the offseason, as has been reported by a number of Seattle beat writers in current weeks. Naylor is enjoying on a $10.9MM wage, practically $4MM of which the Mariners are taking over. Suárez is owed greater than $5MM of his $15MM wage. The Mariners have fallen six video games again of the Astros within the AL West, however they’re clearly keen to speculate as they attempt to at the least lock down a Wild Card berth.
That is the primary of a number of dominoes to fall for the Diamondbacks. Any hope they’d of avoiding a sell-off after they swept the Cardinals popping out of the All-Star Break is gone. They negated the St. Louis sequence by getting swept at residence by Houston earlier this week. They’re again to 3 video games beneath .500 and 5.5 out of a playoff spot with 4 groups to leap. The entrance workplace is resigned to the unlikelihood of closing that hole with an injury-riddled pitching workers.
Arizona is prioritizing controllable pitching of their deadline returns. They get a pair of younger arms of their first deal of the summer season. Garcia, 25, ought to soar proper into the massive league bullpen. The 6’4″ southpaw was simply promoted to the massive leagues on Monday. He has pitched twice, giving up three runs (one earned) on 4 hits and three walks whereas 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 within the higher 80s.
Garcia was Seattle’s Eleventh-round select of Texas A&M in 2023. He ranked thirteenth amongst Seattle prospects at MLB Pipeline and nineteenth at Baseball America. Each retailers credit score him with a promising sinker-slider mixture. Garcia’s lack of a viable changeup and fringe command pushed him to the bullpen for the primary time this season. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports activities 98.7 FM reviews that the D-Backs additionally view him as a reliever and don’t intend to construct him again as much as begin. Garcia has mixed for a 3.51 ERA with a 28.2% strikeout charge and elevated 11.4% stroll proportion in 32 appearances between the highest two minor league ranges.
Izzi, 21, is a long-term growth play. Seattle took him within the fourth spherical of the 2022 draft out of an Illinois highschool. He pitched effectively in Low-A final season however has struggled to a 5.51 ERA throughout 12 begins in Excessive-A this 12 months. He has punched out 1 / 4 of batters confronted with an affordable 9.7% stroll charge, suggesting there’s some poor fortune in that earned run common. The 6’3″ right-hander ranked thirteenth amongst Seattle farmhands at Baseball America and sixteenth at MLB Pipeline. He has a mid-90s fastball and the possibility for a three-pitch combine that might enable him to stay as a starter if his command continues to develop.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Mariners had been buying Naylor. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had Garcia and Izzi going again to Arizona. Respective pictures courtesy of Denis Poroy and Joe Nicholson, Imagn Photographs.
