Bo Naylor

Noah-Gibson James Washington Naylor
(Bo)

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.
High School St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School
Debut October 1, 2022

Born February 21, 2000 in Mississauga, ON CAN

Biographical Information[edit]

Noah "Bo" Naylor is the younger brother of Josh Naylor and cousin of Denzel Clarke. A third brother, Myles Naylor, was taken by the Oakland Athletics in Competitive Balance Round A in the 2023 amateur draft.

Like his older brother, Bo was a youth baseball star in the Toronto, ON area and played on the Canadian junior national team, including at the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup that was held in Thunder Bay, ON in September 2017. He had a very good tournament for the fourth-place hosts, being named to the tournament All-Star team as the third baseman. One notable play was scoring the tying run against Japan; when the throw beat him home, he pulled off a great slide to make it in safely. He hit .313/.463/.406 with 8 walks, 6 runs and 4 steals (never caught) in 9 games, fielding .968 at the hot corner as well. He tied for 5th in the Cup in doubles (3), tied for 4th in walks and tied for 5th in swipes. He was joined on the All-Star infield by Leonardo Seminati, César Prieto and Brice Turang.

He was selected in the 1st round of the 2018 amateur draft by the Cleveland Indians, with the 29th overall pick. He was listed as a multi-position player at the time, but the Indians soon had him concentrate on catching. He played his first professional season in 2018 with the AZL Indians 2, hitting .274/.381/.402 in 33 games. In 2019, he moved up to the Lake County Captains of the Midwest League where he hit .243/.313/.421 in 107 games, with 18 doubles, 10 triples and 11 homers. He scored 60 runs and drove in 65 while being a full 2.3 years younger than the average player in the league. In 2020, he spent the season at the Indians' alternate training site when the minor leagues were shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic. At the end of August, his brother Josh joined him in the Indians organization when he was acquired in a trade with the San Diego Padres for P Mike Clevinger. In 2021, he spent the season with the Akron RubberDucks of the Double-A Northeast, but he fell to .187/.280/.332 in 87 games. On the positive side, he did hit 13 doubles and 10 homers, scored 41 runs and drive in 44. He was also named to play for the American League squad at the 2021 Futures Game. He split the 2022 season between Akron and the AAA Columbus Clippers, batting .263/.392/.496 in 118 games, with 73 runs, 23 doubles, 21 homers and 68 RBIs. He made his big league debut with the now Cleveland Guardians on October 1st, going 0 for 2 as a defensive replacement in a 7-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. His brother Josh was playing DH in that game, and when he made his first start the next day, he was batting just behind his older brother in the Guardians' batting order. Overall, he went 0 for 8 in 5 games for Cleveland and while he was eligible for the postseason did not appear in any games.

In 2023, he was the starting catcher for Canada at the World Baseball Classic, starting all four games. His brother elected not to suit up for the Canadians, although the team could have used his bat in the line-up. The highlight of the tournament was hitting a home run off José Urquidy of Mexico in Canada's final game on March 15th. Bo started the season in the minors with Columbus and hit .254 in 60 games, with 13 homers and 48 RBIs to earn a call-up to Cleveland on June 18th (he had previously been called up as the 27th man in a May 21st doubleheader against the New York Mets, going 0 for 2). He collected his first major league hit on June 21st, in a 7-6 win over the Oakland Athletics. He had been 0-for-17 for his career until that hit, which sparked the winning two-run rally in the bottom of the 8th. On July 14th, he and his brother both hit two-run homers in the 3rd inning of a game against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park; they were the first pair of brothers to ever hit multi-run homers for the same team in the same inning, and only the 13th pair to homer in the same game. Unfortunately, the Rangers then scored 12 unanswered runs to win the game, 12-4. He finished his rookie season at .237 in 67 games, with 11 homers and 32 RBIs for an OPS+ of 124.

On April 10, 2024, Bo and Josh both homered in the 4th inning of a game against the Chicago White Sox, repeating their feat from the previous year, then Josh tied the game with a double in the 10th inning before Bo delivered the game-winning hit with the bases loaded for a 7-6 win. The two-homer inning was only the 10th recorded instance of such a feat, and it helped to erase a five-run deficit. Moreover, the game was played on National Siblings Day. Still, it was an inconsistent first half with the bat for Bo, as at the end of June he was hitting just .208 with an OPS of .607 - while his older brother was on his way to his first appearance in the All-Star Game. However, he showed some good signs in early July, both times as a pinch-hitter: on July 2nd, batting for fellow catcher Austin Hedges in the bottom of the 9th against the Chicago White Sox, he hit a game-winning sacrifice fly, then on July 7th, he went one better. This time, he hit for Hedges in the bottom of the 6th with 2 on and the Guardians trailing the San Francisco Giants, 3-2, and he delivered a three-run blast off Sean Hjelle, giving Cleveland a lead it would not relinquish.

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