(Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
Bo Naylor was picked by many to finally have that breakout season in 2026, coming off a hot finish of the 2025 season where he made a swing adjustment, and just absolutely took off.
But in 18 starts/games played in so far for Bo, those results are nowhere to be seen, with him having the worst start to a season of his young career.
The more and more this season goes on, the more and more fans are getting frustrated with the production of Bo Naylor, who has just continued to struggle, and STILL has not truly found his footing in the Majors, despite being in year 5.
Back in 2021-2023, Bo Naylor was one of Cleveland’s most hyped up Catching prospects in a long time, with fans believing that he could one of the next star catchers in this league, with 20+ HR seasons for years to come.
Since 2022, when Bo made his MLB Debut, Naylor has hit just .201 as a career batting average with 39 total home-runs and slightly over 120 total RBIs. Now if you think about it, that is not great, considering that is in about 1100 career at-bats, counting walks and HBP.
The main problem with Bo is just one thing, which is that he has never taken that next step in becoming a solid MLB starting catcher, and seen any improvement as seasons go on. He has as actually digressed or stayed around the same every season in terms of offensive production as well as defensively.
Since his true rookie season in 2023, where he had a solid rookie campaign, hitting .237 with 11 homers in 67 game, his batting average has dipped dramatically every year since then, dropping down to .201 in 2024, and last season dipping just under .200, batting .195
There is no consistency with Bo’s game at the plate, where one week he’ll be super hot at the plate, like last year at the end of the season when Bo was a huge part of the Guardians’ 15.5 game comeback to win the AL Central , then it seems like he doesn’t get a hit, let alone get on base for a month straight.
Bo has also had a strikeout problem at the plate, striking out 26.5% of the time in his career, which is more than the MLB strikeout average of around 22%.
So far this season, Bo has been unwatchable at the plate, hitting just a miserable .138 on the season with one homer. Naylor’s war is -0.3 which is just horrendous, and it wont be long till Guardians fans start calling for Guardians’ Catching prospect Cooper Ingle to be called up to replace Naylor, who despite having some injuries this season, has been killing it in AAA Columbus, hitting .394 in 54 at-bats, as well as displaying some great power with 4 homes already on the season.
In an Interview, Manager Steven Vogt stated that Bo has “just gotten off to a slow start,” and “I think he’s one of the most unlucky hitters if you look at the, if you like the expected numbers.” But honestly, that is a load of baloney, because for 3 seasons now, we have not seen that Bo that we all know he can be at the plate, or in fact not one sign of growth offensively.
There’s only solution to this, and that is to send Bo Naylor down to AAA Columbus to figure things out for awhile and bring up Cooper Ingle once healthy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Bo as a player and person. He is a good kid, but his lack of offensive production is hurting the team and bringing up Cooper could possibly fill that void in the lineup, and give this offense a spark.
If Naylor wants to stay and retain his position as the starting catcher for the Cleveland Guardians, then Naylor needs to pick it up RIGHT NOW or we might be seeing another Mike Zunino situation like from back in 2023, where extremely poor offensive and defensive play got him booed off the field and eventually DFA’d, which resulted in Bo Naylor being called up to replace him. I dont believe Bo would get DFA’d but definitely sent down to AAA if poor play contiunes.
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