The Cleveland Guardians need Bo Naylor to build off his strong finish during the 2026 season.
The 2026 campaign will be a pivotal season for a handful of Cleveland Guardians looking to secure their spot in the team’s long-term plans. One of those is former top prospect Bo Naylor, who is entering his fourth big-league season.
Naylor has had some nice stretches at the plate and had a big moment in last year’s playoffs, but overall hasn’t lived up to the hype on offense. Nearly 1,000 at-bats into Bo’s career, the Guardians are getting a better idea of the type of player he is. However, is there any
FanGraph’s ZiPS projections believe Naylor will have a better overall season in 2026, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Cleveland’s catcher will be an All-Star candidate either.
The computer model predicts Naylor to slash .216/.303/.397 over 434 plate appearances. These stats would come with 19 doubles and 16 home runs.
At this point in Naylor’s career, he’s never going to hit for average, and that was never one of his calling cards in the minors either. Bo’s real strength has always been his potential power, and ZiPS does predict him to slightly increase his OPS from .661 a year ago to .700.
Jul 5, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor (23) celebrates after hitting a double during the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn ImagesThe biggest reason for this improvement is that ZiPS foresees Bo taking a massive jump with his on-base percentage in 2026. The model projection has Naylor’s on-base percentage to jump just over .20 points, which would be a welcome addition to Cleveland’s lineup.
Naylor had a walk rate of 10.9 percent in 2025, a great improvement from 2024, and the computer predicts Naylor will have a nearly identical walk rate of 10.8 percent in 2026. That also comes with a similar strikeout rate of 23 percent.
The key will be for Bo to make better contact next year, and ZiPS believes he can.
The Guardians should have faith that Naylor can, at the very least, match these projections after how well he finished the 2025 season.
Bo made a mid-year swing change, which proved to be extremely effective after the All-Star Break. Everything came together in September, when Naylor logged a .872 OPS and delivered multiple clutch hits for Cleveland.
If Bo can pick up where he left off after the swing adjustments, FanGraphs’ projections could be the low side of the type of hitter he is for the Guardians next season.
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