Don’t Worry, Bo Naylor is Coming
Under the hood, there is a lot to like from him so far in ‘25
Bo Naylor has hit to a slashline of .188/.297/.281, good for a wRC+ of 77. These numbers fall in line with Bo’s disappointing 2024, but in there is a lot to like from his early season.
First and arguably most important for a catcher, the defense behind the plate is still very good. The elite level framing he showed last season has not gone anywhere. Of 29 catchers with at least 250 called pitches in the shadow of the zone, Bo Naylor ranks third in called strike rate.
However, Bo did not control the zone while hitting in 2024. In his excellent 2023 he walked 13% and struck out 23% of the time. These rates both took a massive hit in 2024 as the walk rate fell to 7.5% and the strikeout rate ballooned to 31.4%.
So far in 2025 Naylor is walking at a 13.5% clip and striking out 24.3% of the time. Those numbers are right in line with the .800 OPS Bo Naylor of 2023. He is chasing much less and making a little more contact.
The quality of contact is a huge improvement this season. Bo is squaring the ball up at 28.3% (73rd percentile), compared to last year where it was only 23.1% (31st percentile). Statcast defines a “squared up” ball as a batted ball with at least 80% of the possible exit velocity based on both swing and pitch velocity.
Another point to the quality of contact improvements is the big gain in sweet-spot% which has gone from the 31st percentile to the 76th percentile. Statcast defines “sweet-spot” as batted balls hit at a launch angle from 8-32 degrees.
Bo has made these improvements while also raising his bat speed back to average, which is where he was in 2023.
Naylor has also been known as a slow starter which is even more reason to stay optimistic about this season for the Guardians catcher. I believe in the improvements we have seen so far from Bo Naylor and I see it as only a matter of time before the hits start falling and he raises his production to at at least that of an average hitter. Hopefully he gets back to the .800 OPS mark he set in his rookie year, but that goes far and beyond what the Guardians need from a catcher with his defensive ability.