PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- After getting to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series in 2025, the Seattle Mariners made two big moves this past offseason with the goal of winning the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

Early in the offseason, they re-signed first baseman Josh Naylor to a five-year deal worth $92.5 million, the richest deal for a position player in the entire decade that Jerry Dipoto has been running the Mariners' front office. 

Then, they traded for All-Star Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Thus far, those moves have provided hit-or-miss returns. Donovan is on the injured list for the second time because of complications from hernia surgery and isn't expected back until early or mid-July. Naylor, a catalyst of the 2025 run, is hitting .253 with eight home runs.

While he's been durable, playing in 73 of 79 games entering play on Wednesday, he's on pace for the worst full year of his career. After posting a Baseball Reference WAR (bWAR) of 3.0 last season, he currently has a -0.3. His slugging percentage of .368 is well below his career norm of .440. Defensively, he's had issues throwing the ball, and his outs above average is at -3, per Baseball Savant. Fangraphs has his WAR at 0.1, which is a shell of last season's 3.1

No matter how you slice it, Naylor hasn't been the player he was in 54 games after getting traded to the Mariners last season.

We talked more about it with Curtis Rogers of the Seattle Mariners Radio Network on the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast. This came out on Tuesday prior to Seattle's 3-2 win over the Pirates.

"It's leaving plenty to be desired at this point in the season.

And, I mean, you look at his numbers over the course of his career, they're very similar to Ty France at this point. And I kind of wonder why they chose to pay Josh Naylor what they did when they never wanted to commit to Ty France long-term.

I think Naylor's value right now is definitely in the clubhouse. You can hear every guy say he's a great guy, a great clubhouse leader, somebody that they love playing with, and that's great, that's fine. And you want to have those guys that, even if their performance isn't what we've expected it to be, they can be relied upon to be there to bring up clubhouse morale when needed.

But at the end of the day, you're going to have to start performing. And the lack of slug from him, I think, has been the biggest shocker to me because that was something he really, really brought to the team in the second half last year. I mean, there were quotes of him saying, "I love hitting at T-Mobile Park. This is a great place for me to hit."

And the early results last year reflected that. But right now, it has not been that for him.

I think his complete disappearance, or just not hitting the way he did last year, has been a much bigger impact on this season than I think people are looking at. Because of all the other guys around him, specifically Cal (Raleigh) with the injuries, Julio (Rodriguez) has been up and down. Obviously, people look at Rob Refsnyder. The addition of him in free agency has not worked out.

And now you kind of look at Naylor and it's like, okay, 'dude, it's game 80 coming up on Tuesday. You're on pace for what, like 14 home runs this season? That's not what a guy who's getting paid your salary... That's not what we're asking you to do. We're asking you to be a force in the middle of that lineup.'

And I think right now it's just kind of lacking for him."

For comparison: France is hitting .244 with eight homers and 24 RBIs for the San Diego Padres. He's done that in 56 games.

The Mariners will play the Pirates again on Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. PT. 

The latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast is out. You can listen here, or you can watch in the YouTube player below. There will be a new episode on Wednesday featuring ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney. 

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