Rising Guardians slugger could turn longstanding black hole into position of strength

For most of the 2020s, the Cleveland Guardians’ catching situation left a lot to be desired. While the 2010s started with Carlos Santana and ended with Yan Gomes and Roberto Pérez, the start of the latest decade featured a lot of Austin Hedges with a sprinkle of uninspiring options like Luke Maile, Cam Gallagher, and Ryan Lavarnway. 

But that hasn’t been the case in the past two seasons thanks to the emergence of Bo Naylor. Although Naylor’s time with the Guardians has been a bit inconsistent, he’s oozing with potential and still growing as a player. 

He showcased that at the end season when he posted a .290/.324/.548 slashline in September, and has picked up where he left off this spring with a strong showing in Arizona and an even stronger showing for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. 

Bo Naylor could take a huge leap for the Guardians in 2026

While Naylor’s renaissance has been bubbling under the surface for Guardians fans for a while, that WBC performance helped push it to the forefront. Naylor ended up going 6-for-17 in four games at the tournament with a towering home run against Team USA in the quarterfinals that traveled 404 feet. 

The homer, which came off a lefty in Gabe Speier, left Naylor’s bat at 104.2 miles per hour. Last year Naylor hit just .171 against southpaw pitchers, but the early returns from this year make it seem like he’s turning a corner. 

He entered play on Monday hitting .500 (5-for-10) in four games this spring. 

One of the biggest reasons he could be turning that corner is because of a batting stance change, as he’s all in on using a toe tap in his batting approach after adding it last August. 

“The mechanical change he made last year was huge for him,” Guardians hitting coach Grant Fink told reporters in Arizona. “He had struggled in the past at finding consistency of being on one leg. When he got that front foot down, it just gave him comfort in being able to move more aggressively without feeling like he was out of control.”

Although Naylor’s always going to have swing-and-miss in his game thanks to his long, violent swing, the toe tap should help him tap into that power more. 

Naylor already has a strong offensive foundation (he finished last season in the 66th percentile in whiff rate and strikeout rate), so it’s exciting to think about how much better he could be if added some more power to his game. 

Any improvement from Naylor would also be a huge win for a Guardians team that spent most of the offseason sitting on the sideline.

New additions Rhys Hoskins and Stuart Fairchild both have intriguing skillsets that could help the Guardians win in 2026, but it’s clear that the front office is banking on some of their internal players taking leaps — Naylor among them. 

Naylor’s taken huge steps to grow behind the plate since entering MLB. And now this could be the year where he does the same at the dish.