The Mariners and first baseman Josh Naylor are in the final stages of working out a five-year contract, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. The deal will become official when Naylor passes a physical, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Naylor is represented by ISE Baseball.
Assuming the deal crosses the finish line, Naylor becomes the first headline name of the 2025-26 free agent class to land a new contract, just two weeks after the World Series concluded. It counts as a surprise to see any major free agent sign their next contract this quickly, even before the players who received qualifying offers have made their decisions. (Naylor was notably not eligible for a QO, since he was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Mariners during the season.)
That said, there was such mutual interest between Naylor and the Mariners that Seattle certainly seemed like a favorite to retain the first baseman. M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto was open in telling the media — including Darragh McDonald on the MLBTR Podcast back in September — that re-signing Naylor was a priority for the organization, and Naylor himself was just as effusive in how much he enjoyed playing in Seattle.
Considering how Naylor performed after arriving in the Pacific Northwest, it’s easy to see why both sides moved quickly on a long-term deal. Naylor was already enjoying a strong season with the Diamondbacks, but with Arizona falling out of contention, the D’Backs dealt the slugger a week before the trade deadline, landing rookie left-hander Brandyn Garcia and pitching prospect Ashton Izzi.
Naylor proceeded to hit .299/.341/.490 with nine homers and 19 stolen bases (without a single caught stealing) over 210 regular-season plate appearances for the M’s, and he followed that up with a .340/.392/.574 slash line over 51 postseason PA. Adding this type of pop into the lineup was perhaps the primary reason the Mariners won the AL West, and then outlasted the Tigers in the ALDS before falling just short of the first World Series berth in franchise history in losing the ALCS to the Blue Jays in seven games.
This kind of success made the Mariners want to more or less bring the band back together for 2026, which was no small feat since Naylor, Jorge Polanco, and Eugenio Suarez (among others) were all set for free agency. Re-signing Naylor is the first major domino to fall, and it how remains to be seen if either Polanco or Suarez can also be retained in the wake of the team’s sizeable investment in Naylor. The M’s entered the offseason with approximately $34MM to spend, according to Dipoto’s statements after the playoff run was over, with more money potentially available at the deadline if more in-season reinforcements were required.
More to come…
