Guardians Struggling Catcher Is Heating Up At The Plate

To achieve their lofty objectives, the Cleveland Guardians need many of the position players of their young core to take a step forward offensively.

They need Gabriel Arias, Daniel Schneemann, Nolan Jones, Jhonkensy Noel, and Kyle Manzardo to blossom into reliable contributors.

You can go ahead and add Bo Naylor to that group.

If the Guardians get the 2023 version of Naylor, they would consider that a victory.

So far in 2025, they had gotten the mediocre hitter he was in 2024.

He is starting to wake up, though.

“Cleveland #Guardians (C) Bo Naylor has now homered in back-to-back games after his 398 foot 3-run blast tonight vs Twins that came off the bat at 107.1 mph. Five of Naylor’s last seven hits have been XBH over his last 9 games. 7-31 3R 2(2B) 3HR 7RBI 3BB .226 AVG,” Guardians Prospective posted on X.

Cleveland #Guardians (C) Bo Naylor has now homered in back-to-back games after his 398 foot 3-run blast tonight vs Twins that came off the bat at 107.1 mph.

Five of Naylor's last seven hits have been XBH over his last 9 games.

7-31 3R 2(2B) 3HR 7RBI 3BB .226 AVG#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/0knHzYXjCK

— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) May 1, 2025

His majestic 107-mph blast on Wednesday was also clutch: it turned a 1-0 lead into a 4-0 game in the seventh inning, and the extra runs were necessary because the Minnesota Twins scored twice to move closer to 4-2 before the game ended with a Guardians win.

Naylor was so bad to open the 2025 season that he is still slashing a fairly mediocre .191/.282/.397, even after homering in two straight games.

He is, however, starting to showcase the game-changing power he had during his 2023 campaign when he belted 11 home runs in just 230 plate appearances with a .809 OPS.

He then slumped badly last year, hitting 13 round-trippers in 389 trips to the plate, but with a lousy .614 OPS.

His current .679 OPS tells us that he still has a lot of work to do, but he is starting to figure things out at the plate.

If Naylor can come close to that 2023 version of himself, the Guardians would have a legitimate power source at the bottom of their lineup, and that’s invaluable.