Coming into this offseason, everyone knew the chances of the Cleveland Guardians trading Josh Naylor were not zero. As an impending free agent, most expected the Guardians to do their usual operating procedure of listening to trade offers, but it seems like those discussions are heating up a bit more than anticipated.
On Thursday, there was a report of the Guardians discussing Naylor with the Seattle Mariners, making the possibility of a trade coming to fruition seem more real. While it seems like any trade talks between the two sides are in the preliminary stages, and nothing is really close at the moment, it must be stated that trading Naylor would be a huge mistake for the Guardians.
Cleveland won the American League Central Division last season and made it to the ALCS, so removing a key part of what made that possible would make it more difficult to repeat or exceed last season's success. A team that fits this description should be looking to add talent rather than subtract it.
Naylor is coming off of one of his best seasons as a pro, slashing .243/.320/.456 with 31 homers, 27 doubles, and 108 runs driven in. This amount of offense is not easy to replace for any team, much less the Guardians. In a perfect world, the combination of Kyle Manzardo and Jhonkensy Noel would be able to make up for Naylor's loss, but that is not guaranteed by any means. Manzardo has a ton of promise but is still in the early progression stages as a major leaguer, while Noel is very much a boom-or-bust type bat.
Those most in favor of a potential trade cite Cleveland's previous success of trading players with Naylor's contract status. While it has allowed the Guardians to sustain a certain level of competitiveness for an extended time, but at some point, this process has to end, and they must keep a player who they would normally trade. Naylor being the one who breaks this cycle would show that the Guardians are serious about capitalizing on their open contention window and are genuinely trying to end the longest active championship drought in the sport.