Mariners trade for slugger Josh Naylor from D-backs

SEATTLE -- Jerry Dipoto has a longstanding reputation for jump-starting the Trade Deadline market, and the Mariners’ president of baseball operations indeed sparked this year’s traction, with the first major domino falling to Seattle on Thursday night.

The Mariners acquired veteran first baseman Josh Naylor from the D-backs, and the return features two of Seattle’s Top 30 prospects, per MLB Pipeline. Naylor is expected to join the Mariners on Friday night in Anaheim.

TRADE DETAILS
Mariners receive: 1B Josh Naylor
D-backs receive: LHP Brandyn Garcia (Seattle’s No. 13 prospect), RHP Ashton Izzi (No. 16 prospect)

Naylor, 28, is set to be a free agent at season’s end and was a Mariners target over the offseason before he was traded from Cleveland to Arizona. He’s earning $10.9 million this year and is hitting .292 with an .807 OPS, 11 home runs and 59 RBIs in 93 games. He’ll be injected immediately as a middle-order lefty presence around Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena, one who the Mariners hope will fortify a lineup that’s quietly been much more productive over the past six weeks.

“It’s huge,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in Anaheim, where his club downed the Angels, 4-2. “Looking forward to welcoming Josh into a Mariner uniform. A tremendous player, a tremendous bat, and really looking forward to how he fits into this lineup. It’s going to be a tough lineup, and it makes us so much deeper.”

This move is potentially just the first for the Mariners.

Sources familiar with the Mariners’ thinking also said the club is still aggressively pursuing D-backs third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who is arguably the market’s top available bat. And the fact Arizona has begun its sell-off by dealing Naylor suggests that Arizona is open for business and engaged with the Mariners.

Suárez is also generating extreme interest from other contending clubs such as the Yankees, Cubs and Tigers -- all of whom need a third baseman, which is the position of clearest need in Seattle, as well.

Suárez, whom Seattle traded to Arizona in a cost-cutting move during the 2023-24 offseason, is expected to net a much loftier prospect package than that of Naylor. The Mariners -- with eight Top 100 prospects in the MLB Pipeline rankings -- are in position to be one of this year’s boldest buyers.

The Mariners are also seeking at least one leverage arm to bridge their bullpen to Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz for lockdown innings, sources have said.

“This is a good position where we’ve been able to get ourselves into a good spot here in the standings. It’s time to go,” Wilson said. “We get down to the last 59 games here, and we’re excited about where we’re at. … There’s a lot of exciting times -- a lot of fun times -- ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to that.”

The Mariners are five games behind Houston for first place in the American League West and hold the second AL Wild Card spot. The front office has a green light from ownership to increase spending down the stretch, sources have said. By how much remains unclear.

Naylor will earn roughly $4 million through the end of this season and Suárez, on an expiring $15 million contract, is still due roughly $5 million. Seattle’s projected year-end 40-man roster payroll was at around $151 million, per Cots Baseball Contracts, which is about $5 million more than last year.

Suárez has generated the most buzz in this trade season, but it’s possible Naylor might end up being the second-best bat moved before the Deadline at 3 p.m. PT on July 31.

An All-Star in 2024, when he set career highs in homers (31) and RBIs (108), Naylor also possesses sound plate discipline and contact, with a 12.4% K rate that ranks 13th-best among qualified hitters this year. That could be a boon for an offense that struck out with more regularity than any team from 2023-24 but has improved in that context in ’25.

Naylor has been far better against righties (.883 OPS) than lefties (.655 OPS) but should still earn everyday reps at first base, where Luke Raley and Donovan Solano have been in a timeshare for most of the summer. Seattle has accumulated just 0.3 wins above replacement at first base, per FanGraphs, tied for 11th-fewest, while Naylor has been worth 1.4, tied for 11th-most.

Raley, who also hits lefty, likely will see more action in right field now, though that’s also where Dominic Canzone has settled into an everyday role while producing better than at any point in his career (.865 OPS). That could lead to a roster crunch, perhaps even before the Deadline passes, given that Jorge Polanco has emerged as their primary designated hitter.

Adding impact offense has been a priority all summer, even with Raleigh emerging as a legitimate AL MVP candidate and the group as a whole showing more production than the wildly inconsistent groups from 2023-24.

Seattle entered Friday ranked fifth in wRC+ (113, where league average is 100), sixth in homers (139), tied for eighth in OPS (.735) and tied for 10th in runs scored (470). It’s actually been their starting pitching that has experienced more hiccups than anticipated after possessing the sport’s best rotation last season.

Naylor also has 19 games of postseason experience, which would be the most on Seattle’s roster behind Arozarena (33 games), who was the club’s splashy Deadline acquisition last year -- when Dipoto also jumped the market by acquiring him on July 25.

Going to Arizona for Naylor is Garcia, Seattle’s 11th-round pick from its loaded 2023 class who just made his MLB debut earlier this week, along with Izzi, a fourth-rounder in 2022 who was at High-A Everett.

Garcia was among the organization’s fastest-rising pitchers last season, to the point where the club transitioned him from a starter to reliever in 2025 for him to help the big league roster. Izzi was promoted to Everett this year from Single-A Modesto and has a 5.51 ERA in 12 starts. He was signed significantly over slot, for $1.1 million, after being drafted to pry him away from his commitment to Wichita State University.