Josh Naylor formerly with the Cleveland Guardians has been traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. With Christian Walker leaving in free agency this left a hole at first base for the Diamondbacks. In return the Guardians received Slade Cecconi and a competitive balance round b draft pick.
For the Diamondbacks I really like this move. I don’t think they gave up too much at all and Naylor is a really good first baseman. With Walker signing with the Astros the Diamondbacks had to make a move in order to stay competitive. While Naylor might be a slight downgrade Walker was getting up there in age and near the end of his career. Giving up Cecconi is fine, he was originally their first round pick back in 2018 but haven't amounted to much. At age 25 Cecconi got some playing time at the major league level this past season and in 77 innings he had an ERA above 6. Naylor is set to have one more year of team control so the Diamondbacks will have to either re-sign Naylor or look for another first baseman next season. With this move I now expect the Diamondbacks to continue to pursue more bats to stay competitive in their stacked division. With Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk still in free agency they are likely not coming back and Arizona will need to find replacements. There have been rumors that the Diamondbacks wanted to trade away Jordan Montgomery. Montgomery is a solid starting arm but being owed a lot of money it looks like the Diamondbacks want to shed the salary. I think this also shows that they want to maybe add more talent in free agency when they get off of the Montgomery contract. With first base filled it looks like Pavin Smith won’t have much of a role next season and be used more of a depth piece.
For the Guardians this is very Guardians move. Cleveland never pays their players we've seen for forever now besides Jose Ramirez of course. With Naylor’s contract set to expire after next season it makes sense that the Guardians traded him since they had no intent to re-sign him. This is just a constant loop for the Guardians. The Guardians had traded away Mike Clevinger to the Padres when his contract was set to expire and acquired Josh Naylor that way, and now are just doing the same thing. Cecconi isn't anything special but I wouldn't put it past the Guardians to make something out of him. The Guardians have been great at developing pitchers and will get the most out of Cecconi. In return the Guardians went out and signed a one year deal with Carlos Santana. Santana has formally been with the Guardians before so that is a nice reunion. Santana doesn't seem to age all that much he has regressed but at the age of 38. He has great discipline and mashes left handed pitching. He should be fine as a one year rental. With everything Clevland got back, I’m not the biggest fan of the return, but at least they got something for someone who wasn't going to return.
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