It’s a trade that already has a case to be called the best the Seattle Mariners have ever made during the course of a season.
On July 24, the M’s made one of the biggest splashes ahead of the MLB trade deadline by acquiring first baseman Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Baseball fans in Seattle know what came next. Naylor gave the Mariners everything they were hoping for and perhaps more while holding down a position that was a clear weak point before the deal, and the M’s went on their deepest playoff run in franchise history, falling one win shy of their first World Series berth.
Naylor hit .299 with an .831 OPS and 19 extra-base hits in 54 regular season games with Seattle. He played strong defense. And he led the team with 19 stolen bases after joining the clubhouse.
In the playoffs, Naylor took his game to another level with a team-high 16 hits, .340 average and .967 OPS against the stiffest competition in the American League.
On top of it all, Naylor became a beloved figure to his teammates and the fan base.
The Mariners locked up Naylor for five more years with a new contract earlier this month, signaling just how serious the club is about taking the next step and breaking through to the World Series.
During a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander rewound the clock and detailed how the July trade to land Naylor came to fruition.
Hollander started by explaining how he and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto are each responsible for negotiating with different teams, and that the Diamondbacks – who Seattle later acquired third baseman Eugenio Suárez from, as well – are one of the teams that fall under his umbrella. He credited that way of going upon things for building a strong relationship with Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen and assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye.
Hollander then recalled when the Mariners went to Arizona for a three-game series in June, a series that the Diamondbacks swept with some major help from Naylor.
“It was just a challenging series for us, and they were a challenging team to figure out because they’re a good team that had injuries. So I didn’t want to be disrespectful to their season in any way, but just kept checking in with Amiel over and over and over again about potentially Geno’s availability and Josh’s availability,” Hollander said.
“They reached a point in their season where they felt like it was time to at least listen. They called us, we exchanged proposals over the course of a couple of weeks. Finally, he called me just kind of out of the blue. We hadn’t talked in four or five days and (they) said, ‘Would you do this?’ And my gut was we would.”
Hollander said he then asked Dipoto for his thoughts. The two agreed they should make the deal for Naylor, which would send pitching prospects Ashton Izzi and Brandyn Garcia to Arizona, and it was done after a call to confirm with team chairman John Stanton.
Brock and Salk co-host Mike Salk was surprised the deal came together so quickly after the final offer was made.
“We’d exchanged names before and there were names that we wouldn’t do, there were names that we would do, and it just got to a point for us where it made sense given what we were getting (and) what they asked for,” Hollander said. “So we said yes and it was basically, at that point, it was in medical review. I think the answer from John was, ‘Yes, if you guys think it’s the right thing to do, let’s go do it.’
“I think it did help it was the week before the trading deadline and not on the trading deadline. Just more games on the calendar, more days that we got Josh Naylor as part of our team.”
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