There are currently two Naylor siblings in the major leagues, and they both play for the Cleveland Guardians. Now that a third Naylor sibling has been drafted by an MLB club, as the youngest brother Myles was just selected by Oakland, we are not far from having three Naylor siblings in the league at the same time. And while at the moment it seems highly unlikely that Myles could be in a position to be dealt to Cleveland to join Josh and Bo on one team, remember that it was unlikely for Bo to join Josh for a while, and then Josh was traded by the Padres to Cleveland in exchange for Mike Clevinger, so you never know what might go down. Maybe the other Naylors will insist that Myles be an add-on in a trade for some Oakland asset. The possibility exists, and I'm gonna want it to happen.
As it stands, though, having two Naylor brothers aligned is already cool enough. Josh is already having a great season, hitting .312 with 76 RBIs and 15 homers, team marks on all three counts. I think it's easy to boil the Guardians down to just Jose Ramirez and Shane Bieber sometime, as they're the marquee guys and nobody else is as outwardly newsworthy as them, but the Guardians have thrived off smaller, more subtle players who still get the job done for a while. All of Andres Gimenez, Steven Kwan, Aaron Civale and Trevor Stephan can be described like that. Naylor just hits insanely well, and has a 2.0 WAR even if he's not especially well known for his defense [he's better than Josh Bell, though].
Bo, meanwhile, has been slowly working himself up the depth chart to get to the starting catching position. The opening day starter, Mike Zunino, struggled mightily to do the same things he'd struggled mightily to do a year prior with Tampa, but instead of getting universal acclaim and fan followings for it, he was DFA'd within 2 months. The next logical backup was Cam Gallagher, former Royals backup, and he's currently hitting .136 in 40 games, so at this point he's probably just meant to be a backup. And seeing as the nearest reliable catching option, Brian Lavastida, is still getting some much needed minors time, Naylor was the next best option. Bo is currently the better of the two catchers, even while only hitting .200 with 8 RBIs in 19 games. He, like his brother, is a fun piece of the clubhouse and the goal is for Bo to grow into his role as catcher and prevent against the Guardians dealing prospects for Omar Narvaez.
The Guardians have been improving in recent weeks, have won 3 out of their last 4, and have a relatively easy run of scheduling til the Astros series at the end of the month. This can give them time to recover, and potentially build momentum for a playoff run that the still-hitting-starved Twins are only nominally going for at the moment. This is also the time of the year where the Guardians began to go for it last year, so it may happen again, especially with similar tactics.
And remember, this is the amount of potential this Guardians team has with only two Naylors. Imagine if they add a third.
Coming Tonight: Closer for a team that dropped like a stone, even moreso than people thought they would.
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