The Cleveland Guardians entered the off-season with the crystal-clear intention of trading first baseman Josh Naylor.
It might seem unfair, but free agent first basemen haven’t been paid as much as they would prefer in the open market: the Pete Alonso saga is a perfect example of that.
Naylor will become a free agent after the 2025 World Series, so Cleveland, true to its style, decided to flip him to another team to get something in return for him.
They sent him to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Slade Cecconi and a high draft pick.
Before that, however, they talked to multiple teams, including one of their recent playoff nemesis: the New York Yankees.
“The Yankees engaged in discussions with the Cleveland Guardians on Josh Naylor, but the two sides couldn’t come to a resolution, according to a source, before Naylor was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks,” ESPN’s Jorge Castillo reported.
Yankees did try to acquire Josh Naylor from the Cleveland Guardians before they traded him to the Diamondbacks per @jorgecastillo.
— Darius Glover (@GloverDarius) January 30, 2025
The Yankees ended up signing free agent Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year contract to play first base, and Cleveland wound up taking the D-Backs offer.
No one knows how the framework of a trade between the Yankees and Guards would have looked with Naylor as the centerpiece, but names such as Will Warren and Yoendrys Gomez were likely discussed.
In the end, the Guardians didn’t believe talks were particularly productive and moved on.
The Yankees have eliminated the Guardians in their last two postseason ventures, in 2022 and 2024.
Perhaps it would have been a gut punch to fans to reinforce another American League contender.
In the end, the Guards took a nice deal considering the circumstances.
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