Bo Naylor

Bo Naylor

24-Year-Old CatcherC
Cleveland Guardians
2024 Fantasy Outlook
The Guardians didn't hand the reins over to the younger Naylor until mid-June, but regardless he still racked up 2.4 fWAR as a 23-year-old rookie. An impressive athlete at the catcher position, Naylor made his presence felt both at the dish and behind it. He showed good power (11 homers, .232 ISO) and patience (13.0 BB%), finishing 24% better than league average by wRC+. Most enticing for rotisserie players: Naylor's speed. He went a perfect 5-for-5 on the basepaths, and while he's not a burner per se, he is a great runner relative to others at the position. That element of his game gives Naylor the chance to enter rarefied air in fantasy, if he gets the playing time. Cleveland brought Austin Hedges back to help with the workload, but Naylor's plus defense and hitting put him as the clear No. 1 on the depth chart entering 2024. He could surpass 400 plate appearances in a perfect world. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#168
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Guardians in March of 2024.
Out of lineup again in Game 4
CCleveland Guardians
October 18, 2024
Naylor is not in the lineup Friday for Game 4 of the ALCS against the Yankees, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports.
ANALYSIS
The Yankees are starting a righty in Luis Gil, but the left-handed-hitting Naylor will yield to Austin Hedges at catcher for the second straight game. Naylor is hitless in his six starts this postseason but delivered a pinch hit in Thursday's comeback win.
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Batting Stats
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2024
2023
2022
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2023 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
2
2
19
50
18
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
1
6
6
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2022
 
 
+17%
OPS vs RHP
2024
 
 
+13%
OPS vs RHP
2023
 
 
+28%
OPS vs RHP
2022
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2022vs Left .594 129 15 3 13 1 .202 .258 .336
Since 2022vs Right .697 498 57 21 58 10 .213 .296 .401
2024vs Left .556 77 8 2 9 0 .194 .237 .319
2024vs Right .628 312 31 11 30 6 .202 .270 .358
2023vs Left .664 51 7 1 4 1 .217 .294 .370
2023vs Right .852 179 26 10 28 4 .243 .352 .500
2022vs Left .000 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
2022vs Right .000 7 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2022
 
 
+1%
OPS on Road
2024
 
 
+4%
OPS on Road
2023
 
 
+9%
OPS at Home
2022
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2022Home .671 298 35 11 39 5 .202 .290 .382
Since 2022Away .679 329 37 13 32 6 .218 .287 .393
2024Home .601 181 20 7 23 3 .179 .256 .346
2024Away .625 208 19 6 16 3 .219 .271 .354
2023Home .845 109 15 4 16 2 .261 .367 .478
2023Away .776 121 18 7 16 3 .217 .314 .462
2022Home .000 8 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
2022Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does Bo Naylor compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.24
 
BB Rate
7.5%
 
K Rate
31.4%
 
BABIP
.262
 
ISO
.150
 
AVG
.201
 
OBP
.264
 
SLG
.350
 
OPS
.614
 
wOBA
.272
 
Exit Velocity
88.8 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
28.9%
 
Barrels/PA
4.9%
 
Expected BA
.198
 
Expected SLG
.335
 
Sprint Speed
22.3 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
35.0%
 
Line Drive %
17.5%
 
Fly Ball %
47.4%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
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Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Bo Naylor See More
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Past Fantasy Outlooks
2023
2019
He may not slot in here on real-life lists, but there's a decent case Naylor is the game's best catching prospect for fantasy. Not only does Naylor (younger brother of Josh) have a wide open path to as much MLB playing time as he can handle in 2023, but he has the speed to eventually be a five-category catcher. Naylor, who turns 23 in February, slashed .263/.392/.496 with a 23.7 K%, 16.1 BB%, 37.8 Hard% (elite), 21 home runs and 20 steals on 24 attempts in 118 games between Double-A and Triple-A. His batting average could be a weakness as a rookie, which is the case for the vast majority of quality catching prospects. However, he could go 15/15 if he plays 100-plus games, and the only other catchers who could realistically go 15/15 are J.T. Realmuto and Daulton Varsho, the first and third options at the position per early NFBC ADP.
The younger brother of Josh Naylor, Bo has similar upside as a pure hitter (Josh is a career .284 hitter in the minors), but his ability to play catcher and third base puts much less pressure on his offense. Selected out of Ontario with the No. 27 overall pick in 2018, Naylor received an over-slot $2,578,137 bonus. The Indians primarily deployed him at catcher in the AZL, but he did get five starts at third base, so it seems they want to keep their options open. Naylor is a good athlete, which should serve him well behind the dish, and he has plenty of arm for the position, but like all prep catchers, he still has a lot of work to do as a framer and game caller. While Josh was drafted in the first round in 2015 on the strength of his huge raw power, Bo is seen as a hit-over-power prospect at this stage. His above-average speed led to five steals on six attempts in just 33 games, but he may slow down by the time he reaches the majors in 2022 or 2023.
More Fantasy News
Sitting out Game 3
CCleveland Guardians
October 17, 2024
Naylor isn't in the lineup Thursday for Game 3 of the ALCS versus the Yankees, Chris Assenheimer of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram reports.
ANALYSIS
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Out of Game 2 lineup
CCleveland Guardians
October 7, 2024
Naylor is absent from the lineup Monday for Game 2 of the ALDS versus the Tigers, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports.
ANALYSIS
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Takes seat Sunday
CCleveland Guardians
September 22, 2024
Naylor is not in Sunday's lineup against the Cardinals.
ANALYSIS
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Day off Thursday
CCleveland Guardians
September 19, 2024
Naylor is not in the lineup for Thursday's game against the Twins.
ANALYSIS
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Not in lineup
CCleveland Guardians
September 11, 2024
Naylor is absent from the lineup for Wednesday's contest versus the White Sox.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Could be nearing promotion
CCleveland Guardians
May 19, 2023
According to Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal, Naylor's promotion could come sooner rather than later with Mike Zunino and Cam Gallagher going a combined 1-for-46 in May.
ANALYSIS
It's been a horrendous stretch at the plate for the Guardians' backstops, as Gallagher's 1-for-4 effort Thursday provided the duo's first hit of the month. Zunino has never been a consistent offensive presence and has dealt with significant contact issues throughout his career, but his 46.9 percent strikeout rate this year is a massive jump from his career rate of 35.1 percent, and his defensive metrics have regressed as well. Naylor is once again performing well offensively at Triple-A Columbus with a .921 OPS and nine home runs through 40 contests, and Cleveland could soon choose to overlook his defensive concerns -- he's thrown out just six of 40 base-stealers this season -- if Zunino and Gallagher continue to be two of the worst-hitting catchers in baseball.
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