Josh Naylor exits Guardians win over Royals with injury

The Cleveland Guardians came away with a relatively easy win on Tuesday night, taking down the Kansas City Royals by a score of 7-1. While most of the attention from last night's contest has gone to Brayan Rocchio and his team-leading 4 RBI, the health of first baseman Josh Naylor should be taking center stage.

Naylor left in the 8th inning on Tuesday with what was described at the time as an acute back spasm. Manager Stephen Vogt clarified after the game that it was lower back tightness and ruled out any type of severe injury.

When taking his violent swings and tendency to lean into an all-or-nothing approach into account, avoiding a major injury at this time of the season can only be classified as a bullet dodged by Naylor and the Guardians. In fact, it is even more surprising that a lower back injury has not happened sooner, considering how he seems to toe the line of aggressive and reckless on a relatively frequent basis.

Naylor has been a major factor in Cleveland's success this season and they are a much better team with him in the lineup than they are without him. With that being said, they must be incredibly careful with Naylor moving forward, and that includes Wednesday's series finale in Kansas City.

The Guardians do have a day off on Thursday, but they will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend in a three-game set. With that in mind, it would be wise to consider giving Naylor the day off Wednesday in order to get an extra day of rest before flying out to Los Angeles. Having two days of rest should allow Naylor's back to be most of the way, if not all the way, back to normal by Friday night. And as mentioned above, the Guardians are better with Naylor in the lineup. There is not necessarily a need to push the envelope with Naylor in Kansas City, as they should be thinking big picture and long-term right now rather than hyper-focusing on sweeping an opponent that is beginning to slide out of relevance. The decision is easy here, give Naylor the day off and focus on bigger and more important things than the Royals.