The Cleveland Guardians are proving they don’t need Bo Naylor this year
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Guardians are right to hold off on calling up Bo Naylor.
The Cleveland Guardians have gotten some flack from the fandom for not calling up Bo Naylor, the Guardians prized catching prospect. Naylor, who is having a good power season for the Guardians Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers, is not a finished prospect just yet. He’s got 12 home runs, that’s true, but he’s also posting very average numbers elsewhere on offense.
His splits are fairly pedestrian for such an elite hitter in the minor leagues. He’s posting splits of just .257/.397/.500 and an OPS of .897. And you’ll point out that he’s got a higher on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS than just about every Major Leaguer the Guardians have. You’re not wrong. He also has more strikeouts than most of the team too, ranking third against every major leaguer the Guardians have.
Considering most hitters drop off when they get called up from the minors, it’s important that Naylor is doing his very best work against pitchers that he should, rightfully, dominate. If he’s such a great hitter, he should be posting better stats against less talented pitching. After all, it only gets harder in the majors.
His defense is also in need of work. He doesn’t call the strongest games, which is something Guardians assistant GM James Harris alluded to him needing to work on. He’s also prone to causing errors. None of this is to say that Naylor won’t be good, I think he’ll be as good as his brother Josh Naylor. I just don’t think he’s going to arrive in Cleveland and produce at the same level.
Look at Gabriel Arias, a talent every bit as hyped as Bo Naylor, and Arias is struggling. Thankfully, the club doesn’t have to worry about calling him up anytime soon.
The Cleveland Guardians’ recent success should limit the demands for Bo Naylor
The Guardians have won four of their last five series and tied with the fifth. They’ve beaten some good clubs, like the Houston Astros and Orioles, proving that they can in fact hang in the league against the best teams.
If the Guardians can keep up this stretch of offense, averaging over 5.00 runs per game during the last five series, then the team won’t need to call up Naylor, and the Clippers can continue to work on his game and iron out his offense and defense.
The last thing you want is for Naylor to get called up and hit just .220 with 150+ strikeouts. How does that help him? How does that help the club? Not everyone can transition so easily into the majors as Steven Kwan did, and fans need to realize that. Naylor is almost ready but he just isn’t there yet.
He needs more time and the club has, thankfully, given him a chance to get that work in with their recent success.
Next. 3 teams the Cleveland Guardians should trade Shane Bieber to. dark
- Published on 06/14/2023 at 00:31 AM
- Last updated at 06/14/2023 at 00:31 AM