The Seattle Mariners acquired first baseman Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday evening, sources advised ESPN, kicking off Main League Baseball’s commerce season with a deal that bolsters Seattle’s efforts to return to the postseason and indicators the Diamondbacks are open for enterprise.
The deal, which can ship left-handed pitching prospect Brandyn Garcia and right-handed pitching prospect Ashton Izzi to the Diamondbacks, reinforces Seattle’s intentions to aggressively add to its roster earlier than the July 31 deadline.
The Diamondbacks, who entered the season with hopes of returning to their type in 2023 once they made a shock run to the World Sequence, are anticipated to be equally busy, with a variety of impending free brokers like Naylor. Amongst third baseman Eugenio Suarez and right-handers Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, Arizona has a number of the most sought-after gamers on the commerce market.
Naylor, 28, is a slugging first baseman whose low strikeout price makes him notably interesting to groups. Arizona acquired him over the winter from Cleveland, the place he had spent nearly all of his profession following a commerce from San Diego.
In 93 video games this season, Naylor is hitting .292/.360/.447 with 11 residence runs, 59 RBIs and 49 strikeouts in 394 plate appearances. An All-Star in 2024 recognized for infrequent shows of on-field emotion, Naylor has hit .267/.329/.444 with 95 residence runs and 402 RBIs in 691 profession video games. 100 one in every of them got here at designated hitter, the place he might see time in Seattle, which ended a 20-year postseason drought in 2022 however completed one recreation behind the ultimate wild-card winner within the American League every of the final two seasons.
Whereas Garcia, 25, made his debut earlier this week as a reliever, he blitzed via the Mariners’ system as a starter after they chose him within the eleventh spherical of the 2023 draft out of Texas A&M. With an influence sinker that runs into the excessive 90s and a breaking ball that works from his low-slot supply. As a starter final season, he put up a 2.48 ERA between Excessive-A and Double-A in 116 innings with 134 strikeouts and 47 walks, whereas in reduction this 12 months he struck out 42 and walked 17 in 33⅓ innings with a 3.51 ERA.
Izzi, 21, was a fourth-round pick of highschool in 2022 who tamed the California League final 12 months with a 2.85 ERA in 110⅔ innings. Over 47.1 innings at Excessive-A this season, he has struck out 54, walked 21 and allowed eight residence runs with a 5.51 ERA.
Arizona, whose core of outfielder Corbin Carroll, second baseman Ketel Marte and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo stays some of the proficient within the recreation, has sought pitching on the commerce market following accidents to Corbin Burnes and Jordan Montgomery and a 50-53 begin. With Kelly and Gallen each probably leaving by way of free company, bolstering their rotation going ahead is seen as a precedence, particularly with a probable deal for Suárez, who’s considered the perfect place participant available on the deadline.
The Mariners, in the meantime, didn’t faucet into their cadre of high-end prospects who comprise arguably the perfect farm system in baseball. Seattle has been loath to deal the perfect of them — together with shortstop Colt Emerson, outfielder Jonny Farmelo and right-hander Ryan Sloan — for rental gamers. The Mariners’ minor league pitching depth grew past Sloan and change pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje when LSU left-hander Kade Anderson fell to them with the No. 3 choose within the draft over the All-Star break.
Seattle entered Thursday evening’s recreation towards the Los Angeles Angels six video games behind Houston for the AL West division lead however, at 54-48, is tied with Boston for the second wild-card spot within the AL.