The 3 Most underpaid players on the Cleveland Guardians

Josh Naylor, 1B

Josh Naylor very recently signed a one-year, $6.5 million dollar contract with the Cleveland Guardians. This was not a ‘cheap’ signing, as Naylor is the fourth-highest-paid player on his team. Naylor is still a young player, set to begin his sixth major league season, and I believe he is set to breakout and command a much larger contract as he enters his final year of arbitration eligibility.

Naylor has improved every year he has been in the big leagues, having secured an everyday role with the Guaridans back in ‘22. Last season, Naylor slashed .308/.354/.489, hitting 17 home runs and tallying up 97 RBIs - all of which are All-Star caliber numbers. 

To dive a little bit deeper into how valuable of a player he has become, lets look at some more advanced statistics: in 2022 and 2023, Naylor's wRC+ was 119 and 128 respectively (100 is the mark for an ‘average’ MLB player).

Every year since 2021, Naylor's stirkeout rate has gone down, dropping from 18.0% to 13.7% throughout that time. Something else Naylor has been able to do to further contribute is steal bases. In 2021, Naylor stole 1 base. In ‘22, Naylor stole 6, and finally, in ‘23, Naylor swiped a total of 10 bags. Josh Naylor put his full skillset on show in 2023.

The 2015 first round pick is still developing as a ballplayer, and has lots of room to go up from here (even though he is already quite good). Expect his contract next year to be worth a whole lot more than $6.5 million.