The Seattle Mariners traded for Josh Naylor expecting power and production from the veteran first baseman. They probably didn’t expect him to turn into Rickey Henderson.
Naylor has stolen eight bases in his first 11 games with Seattle since the trade deadline. He’s a perfect 8-for-8, too.
No player in baseball has more steals than Naylor during that span, per Just Baseball.
Let’s put this in perspective. Naylor is a 5-foot-10, 235-pound first baseman. That’s not exactly your typical base-stealing threat.
His previous career-high for stolen bases in a season was 10 back in 2023 with Cleveland. Now he’s sitting at 19 steals total this year – 11 with Arizona in 93 games, then these eight explosive performances in Seattle.
The math is wild here. If Naylor kept this pace over 162 games, he’d finish with 117 stolen bases.
Maybe he’s getting tips from teammate Cal Raleigh, who’s also set a career-high in steals this season despite weighing 235 pounds himself. There’s something in the Seattle water apparently.
New Team Energy
It’s likely that Naylor is just energized by the change of scenery and Seattle’s playoff push. He’s doing whatever it takes to help his new team win games.
The bat hasn’t quite caught fire yet – Naylor’s hitting .244 with two homers in those 11 games. But he’s created eight extra baserunners just by being aggressive on the paths.
That’s valuable production even if the power numbers aren’t there yet.
If the hitting comes around and Naylor keeps running like this, Seattle’s going to look pretty smart for making this trade. And even if he slows down on the bases, he’s already made quite an impression on his new teammates.
Not bad for a guy who nobody expected to be leading baseball in stolen bases.
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