The Cleveland Guardians made a rather surprising decision on Saturday. They traded pitching prospect Matt Wilkinson and a high draft pick to San Francisco for catcher Patrick Bailey, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner behind the plate.
Bailey is a defensive star, even if he doesn’t really move the needle offensively. The team saw him as an upgrade over the struggling Bo Naylor, who is hitting .143 and has been a below-average hitter in the last two seasons prior to 2026, and decided to pull the trigger on the deal.
The Guardians now have Bailey, Austin Hedges, and David Fry available to catch, so they chose to option Naylor to Triple-A Columbus for him to work on his issues in a low-stress environment.
Hedges, who knows Naylor very well after working with him for years, was gutted for his teammate. He also said he has confidence he will be back at some point.
“A lot of mixed emotions. Bo’s our brother. We believe so, so much in him. I firmly believe Bo’s gonna catch in this league for a very long time,” Hedges said, per Mason Horodyski of News 5 Cleveland.
“A lot of mixed emotions. Bo's our brother. We believe so, so much in him. I firmly believe Bo's gonna catch in this league for a very long time.”#Guardians catcher Austin Hedges on Bo Naylor being optioned to AAA Columbus.#GuardsBall x @WEWS pic.twitter.com/UqiNqI0N5z
— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) May 9, 2026
The Guardians as a whole believe in Naylor. That’s why they gave him two years and a little over a month to establish himself as an above-average offensive catcher in MLB, and it didn’t happen.
After his 123 wRC+ as a rookie in 2023, he posted a 74 wRC+ in 2024 and an 85 mark last year. He was at a 22 wRC+ at the time of his demotion. He isn’t a liability behind the plate, but is considerably worse than Hedges and Bailey, so he needs to hit.
There’s a chance that the move kickstarts his stagnant offense, but the Guardians have no choice but to be patient and give him the right tools and guidance to get his bat going.
Bailey will now enter a crowded catching rotation together with Hedges and Fry, whose bat is coming around. They will now have impressive framing and game-calling talent in virtually every game, which is definitely not insignificant.
Hedges will definitely miss his teammate and friend, but the Guardians felt they had to do something to improve the outlook of the catcher position, and they did just that on Saturday.
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