The Mariners and Diamondbacks made the primary vital 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 extra strikes have been required in that regard. The D-Backs recalled Tristin English to fill the spot on the energetic 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 obtainable. The 28-year-old first baseman is having a powerful yr in his personal proper, although. Naylor is hitting .292/.360/.447 with 11 homers in almost 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 properly above-average hitter for a fourth straight season. Final yr’s career-best 31 residence runs seems like an outlier, however he has minimize his strikeout fee to a personal-low 12.4% clip and may hit between 15-20 homers.
Seattle has lengthy had a fame as a crew that desperately wants offense to enrich a loaded pitching employees. That has been true in prior seasons however isn’t a lot the case this yr. 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 share and slugging. That’s no small feat for a crew that performs its residence video games on the extraordinarily pitcher-friendly T-Cell Park. Seattle has an MLB-best .270 batting common and .346 OBP on the street, 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 discipline. Dominic Canzone has been on hearth since Seattle recalled him from Triple-A on June 9. He now tasks as a bench bat, although he might additionally get into the lineup at designated hitter if the Mariners really feel snug utilizing Jorge Polanco a bit of 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 Occasions reported that the Mariners thought-about a reunion with Suárez to be their prime deadline precedence, much more so than the thought of including Naylor. The Mariners will reportedly proceed to push so as to add Suárez as properly. He’s a cleaner positional match — he’d be an enormous 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 larger monetary flexibility than that they had over the offseason, as has been reported by a number of Seattle beat writers in latest weeks. Naylor is taking part in on a $10.9MM wage, almost $4MM of which the Mariners are taking up. 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 prepared to speculate as they attempt to at the very least lock down a Wild Card berth.
That is the primary of a number of dominoes to fall for the Diamondbacks. Any hope that they had of avoiding a sell-off once 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 employees.
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 leap 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 shops 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 fee and elevated 11.4% stroll share in 32 appearances between the highest two minor league ranges.
Izzi, 21, is a long-term improvement play. Seattle took him within the fourth spherical of the 2022 draft out of an Illinois highschool. He pitched properly in Low-A final season however has struggled to a 5.51 ERA throughout 12 begins in Excessive-A this yr. He has punched out 1 / 4 of batters confronted with an affordable 9.7% stroll fee, 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 would permit him to stay as a starter if his command continues to develop.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Mariners have been buying Naylor. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had Garcia and Izzi going again to Arizona. Respective photographs courtesy of Denis Poroy and Joe Nicholson, Imagn Photos.
