The Cleveland Guardians enjoyed one of their best Cactus League games of the young 2025 campaign on Thursday night in Arizona.
They beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-0 thanks to inspiring performances by Tanner Bibee, Doug Nikhazy, Emmanuel Clase, Kolby Allard, and Ryan Webb.
However, the night belonged to catcher Bo Naylor.
Naylor, coming off a highly disappointing 2024 campaign that yielded a horrible .614 OPS, smacked two home runs to lift his team to victory.
For those scoring at home, Bo Naylor just went deep again, this time a 3-run homer. https://t.co/49SgehGqgf
— Tim Stebbins (@tim_stebbins) March 7, 2025
In fact, Naylor accounted for every Guardians run last night.
First, he opened the second frame with a long drive against Ryne Nelson that cleared the wall and gave Cleveland their first run.
Then, he took Gerardo Gutiérrez deep in the third inning with two runners on.
Bo Naylor – Cleveland Guardians (2)* pic.twitter.com/bdXRmdJv0U
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) March 7, 2025
That’s all the offense the Guards needed to clear the obstacle that the D-Backs represented.
It was Cleveland’s fourth win of the spring, against seven losses.
Watching Naylor put together such a demonstration of power has to be encouraging for what’s about to come.
Naylor belted 11 home runs in just 67 games as a rookie in 2023, with a cool .809 OPS that can be considered elite for a catcher.
The wheels fell off last year, though, and his power output slightly increased to 13 round-trippers, but in 123 games.
His plate discipline eroded badly and he became very vulnerable with two strikes.
The Guardians certainly hope this is the start of a nice run that extends to the regular season.
In just a day, Naylor went from slashing .188/.278/.188 to .263/.333/.579.
Of course, the sample size is tiny, but it’s nice to see the powerful and promising Naylor hitting a few balls out for a change given his mediocre 2024.
NEXT: Guardians Pitching Prospect To Make His Spring Debut On Thursday
