Guardians Season in Review: Bo Naylor

A bumpy sophomore season for the Guardians’ catcher

With the re-signing of Austin Hedges this offseason, it’s clear the Guardians view Bo Naylor as their catcher of the future. What did we learn about Bo in 2024?

First, the stats: Bo had a 74 wRC+, 31.4/7.5 K/BB% and 1.6 fWAR, while putting up 11 Defensive Runs Saved, 8 Statcast Fielding Runs Above Average and 7.9 Framing Runs Above Average. With the addition of folks like manager Stephen Vogt, bench coach Craig Albernaz and Hedges to the already existing Sandy Alomar presence around him, Bo thrived as a defensive catcher by the metrics. He was slightly below average in preventing base-stealing (-1) and slightly below average in the nebulous game-calling metrics (-1), but in every other measure, he made huge strides from his numbers in 2023. However, his bat, obviously, took a significant step back from the 122 wRC+ with which he ended his rookie season.

What went wrong for Bo at the plate? Part of it was a horrific beginning and awful ending to the season. From June 1st to August 31st, Bo put up a 103 wRC+. From March 29th to May 31st, however, he put up a 51 wRC+ and he ended with a final month wRC+ of 48. Now, people may read this and say “You’re just pulling random numbers, why not look at the whole season?” I would respond that Bo has been known to be a slow starter, and it makes sense for his bat to lag a little bit as he takes over full-time catcher duties for the first time and then it also tracks for it to collapse at the conclusion of that first season as a full-time catcher. I find it interesting that after being absolutely terrible to begin the postseason, after getting a couple games off from starting, Bo responded by going 3 for 7 with 2 doubles in the final two ALCS games. So, I do think that part of what we observed this season was Bo being exhausted as his body and mind adjusted to being a full-season catcher in the big leagues. It’s now crucial that he build on that experience through conditioning and preparation to better survive and thrive in the role in 2025.

The biggest difference in terms of Bo’s underlying metrics was swinging and missing at pitches outside the zone. His swing rate at those pitches remained almost the same from 2023; he just whiffed far more often (an increase of 12%!). His pull-rate went up 7% and his fly-ball rate only declined about 3%, and his overall hard-hit rate went up by about 7% while his barrel rate declined a little less than 1%. His batting average on balls in play remained fairly constant, also. The main issue was swinging and missing at balls outside the zone and just not making enough contact.

I am skeptical that the player who put up a walk rate of 12.6% in the minors is a true 7% walk rate guy in the big leagues. A focus for Bo in the offseason needs to be on pitch recognition and exercising more of the discipline he has shown in the past in laying off pitches out of the zone and forcing pitchers to give him pitches he can pull in the air. Of course, he will be working on game-calling and defensive skills as all catchers do, but, with the reassurance of knowing that he has proven himself to the pitching staff and coaches, one would hope he can spend a little more time trying to get himself right at the plate. He should also find a couple friends who are lefties (or just one of those fancy pitching robots) to give him some consistent looks from a southpaw, as his 57 wRC+ against LHP in 2024 was a big drop from his 85 wRC+ against them in 2023, making platoon risk one of the primary concerns about him.

I have been pretty consistent in saying that I like what the Guardians have in Bo Naylor and, if I were the Guardians’ decision-makers, I’d be more interested in pursuing an extension with Bo than in finding a replacement for him. The first reason for this is that he has proven himself at the most difficult aspect of the catching job - as a defender. Yes, there are still things to clean up - his brain fog with Joey Cantillo pitching against the Yankees that allowed four “wild pitches” to skip past him, some questionable pitch-calling leading to the Kerry Carpenter homer on a Clase slider and other issues against the Yankees. But, overall, he has shown the skills to be good behind the plate. From all accounts, he has the work ethic and intellect to get better in the areas where he can use improvement there. Second, I have seen so many solid hitting catchers struggle in their first or second seasons catching full-time in the big leagues. In fact, established catchers will often wildly fluctuate in offensive performance from one year to the next. Being a catcher is incredibly hard, the most difficult job in sports. With Bo only being 25 years old next season, there is plenty of reason to believe he can rediscover some of the hitting ability he displayed throughout his career in the minors while continuing to grow his defensive game.

FanGraphs’ Esteban Rivera wrote a piece on Bo Naylor early last season noting reasons for optimism with his offensive profile (pulled fly-balls) and predicting teams would try to get him to hit pitches on the outside of the zone to his pull side and that Bo would have to keep his front side locked in to avoid making weak contact or swinging and missing. A quick analysis of clips from 2024 illustrate that Bo was, far too often, opening up his front leg, leaving him flailing against offspeed and breaking balls to the outer half of the plate or out of the zone. I have confidence that he will find the ability to get back to more of his pulled fly-ball approach and lay off a few more pitches on the outside in 2025. I think a new hitting coach arriving in Cleveland may also help get messages through in needed ways. Time will tell if I’m correct, but, for now, I’ll be glad to see Bo batting 8th in the Guardians Opening Day lineup as our catcher of the future.

Here are some Bo Naylor highlights from 2024:

A great example of his work as a framer below: