After being optioned by the Cleveland Guardians, Bo Naylor is back to playing competitive games, and the early returns have looked good.
When the Cleveland Guardians decided to option Bo Naylor earlier in May, they also announced that he wouldn’t immediately return to game action. Instead, Naylor went out to Cleveland’s Arizona Complex to sort through parts of his swing and identify areas to improve before officially reporting to Triple-A.
After all that work with the Guardians’ coaching staff, Bo returned to live action over the weekend with the Columbus Clippers, and the very early returns were pretty promising.
“A really productive few weeks for Bo in Arizona. You got a chance to work with Craig Massoni and some of our other coaches out in Arizona, and both our coaches and Bo felt like they made some progress with his swing and some things with his approach, and they were able to test it against their traject, that we have out there,” said Chris Anotonetti on Sunday morning.
“Bo ultimately felt he was ready to transition back to a competitive environment in Columbus and test out some of those swing adjustments. And I think the early returns are good.”
The early results from Naylor’s work have been good. He’s appeared in five Minor League games so far, and owns a .333/.478/.444 slash line. He’s logged six hits in 18 at-bats, including a pair of doubles. Of those hits, Bo’s max exit velocity has been 101.8 mph.
Bo still has more strikeouts (six) than walks (four), which was part of the issue at the big-league level, but there are other encouraging pieces, too.
Apr 18, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor (23) hits a home run during the eighth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn ImagesSo, looking at where everything stands now, what’s next for Naylor?
Well, most likely, more of the same.
Stephen Vogt said on the day Naylor was sent down that the Guardians still believe in Bo as an everyday, big-league-caliber player.
While that may be true, he still has to show over a much longer period that his offensive game plan has, in fact, changed from where he was at the start of the regular season.
Plus, Cleveland already has three catchers on its roster (Austin Hedges, Patrick Bailey, and David Fry), so an opportunity must open up on the MLB roster for Naylor, too.
Antonetti continued, “Obviously, we won't know for quite a while, and it will continue to be a process, but I think Bo is in Columbus with a great mindset, and he's putting in a ton of work, and hopefully, the adjustments he's made will continue to translate.”
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