Last night’s walk-off win aside, it hasn’t been an ideal first year for Josh Naylor in Seattle after joining the team at the trade deadline last year for a thrilling run to the playoffs, followed up by signing the largest contract of his career this off-season: a contract that represented stability for Naylor, who is on his fourth organization with the Mariners, and a fanbase that was quick to embrace the soft-spoken, cerebral, often enigmatic Canadian.
It was, most everyone agreed, a slam-dunk of a deal for both sides: a round peg in a round hole for the Mariners, seeking help at first base; a steady producer at the plate who would balance out some of the Mariners’ more volatile strikeout-prone bats; veteran leadership for a young team. And for Naylor, a fast favorite with the fanbase, long(ish)-term stability, a chance to establish some roots in a community and a clubhouse after earning a more permanent place, helping the Mariners to a fairy tale-esque run down the stretch.
Unfortunately, 2026 has been anything but a fairy tale for the Mariners on the field, last night’s walk-off aside.
“It was tough as a team this year,” admitted Naylor. “We didn’t accomplish what we wanted to.”
Despite the rough season, Naylor has enjoyed integrating himself in to the Seattle community, both in the clubhouse and beyond. He and his wife Chantel have made a point to explore the state on off-days. They’ve also attended various Seattle sporting events, especially hockey games, something they’re both passionate about and hope to pass on to their young son. Naylor says the family plans to drop in to Seattle this winter to take in some football and hockey, although the family also plans to spend significant time back in Ontario with their son, as Naylor says he wants him to experience the Canadian winters he did as a child.
“I can’t wait to get him on skates,” he said.
[At this point we should note Naylor’s child is not yet one year old. Canadians: Very Serious about their hockey!]
The Naylors have also gotten involved locally with Ronald McDonald House, continuing on the charity work Naylor did with that organization while with Cleveland. Naylor, whose family is deeply important to him, is passionate about supporting families undergoing times of stress.
Maybe because family is so important to him, Naylor has also made a point to put his arms around the younger players, especially his infielders, a responsibility he shares with J.P. Crawford. The two famously took rookie Colt Emerson shopping to buy his first big-league suit, advising on cut and color (lavender!). They also “co-parent” second baseman Cole Young, who maybe doesn’t realize exactly how lucky he is to have not one but two veteran players watching over him.
“We sit by each other on the plane,” said Naylor. “If we’re not talking baseball, we’re talking TV shows or video games or whatever. But I try to take him under my wing a little bit. J.P.’s done a great job taking him under his wing, too, and I’m close to J.P., so he’s just kind of along for the ride now too.”
“We try to spoil him. We take him to the stores and stuff. Spoil him with that. Spoil him with just, like, personal time, me and him and a few other guys. We play video games every night together, and then we just talk about the day. Talk about future of baseball and our future, as individuals. We just became really, really close teammates, which is awesome.”
It’s a selfless act, to pour so much into another player, so much so that it makes one wonder if Naylor is either mimicking something that was given to him or seeking to avenge something he wasn’t given in his career. But he shrugs off the insinuation that this is some kind of karmic scales-balancing.
“I just think it’s good to be a good person, regardless of your status or age,” he said.
“I just think it’s nice to be nice.”
Whether it’s passing something along or being the change he wants to see, the effect is the same.
“If you can, if you see an opportunity to help, you help. If you need to seek help, seek help. But I don’t want to say it’s something that was done to me or not done to me. I just think it’s it’s good to be a good teammate, especially if you know someone is younger than you in experience-wise—not necessarily age, but just game experience—and you see they did something, maybe just get in their ear a little bit, say hey, that was awesome, or hey, you know, maybe try this or that.”
“I just try to be a source of confidence for people here. You know, whether it’s on a personal level or a baseball level, I just try to be there for you. If you need me to watch your kids for you because you want to go out with your wife, I’ll watch your kids for you. If you want to have a conversation about baseball and go back and forth on a topic? I’m more willing to do that. I try to be a really good friend first, and then an even better teammate after that. That’s just my goal in my career and my life.”
One thing Naylor has been monitoring is the improvement in his second baseman; he’s hopeful Cole Young will win a Gold Glove this year, and credits the work Cole has put in to get him to that level as well as the coaching he’s gotten from Perry Hill, or “Bone.” Naylor says he doesn’t want to speak on behalf of rookie Colt Emerson, but that he knows what it’s like to feel the pressure as a rookie in a big-league infield.
“Your first year it’s kind of tough because you may not know what to expect, and then the days get harder the worse you do. That’s at least what I felt. The days get tough if you’re not succeeding, and then you push a little bit harder to succeed, and then you probably fail a little bit more.”
“Every young guy goes through it at some point in their career, where you fail and it sucks, and you try a little bit harder the next day and maybe fail a little bit more and then it sucks more, and then you finally succeed and it’s like—ah, I didn’t need to try so hard for three or four weeks. I was really relaxed today and it worked out.”
It’s a hard-won mindset Naylor is trying to impart to his young infield-mates, something he says is eased by the daily infield practice mandated by Hill: exposure therapy to reading balls off endless fungo bounces.
“We’re all humans, so we make mistakes at times, but being prepared for anything is the mentality,” Naylor said, while noting he appreciates the opportunity to watch his fielders – who he says he wants to help win Gold Gloves – improve. “Helping someone get to their best level in life, and then also in their in their field, whether it’s sports, whether it’s academics, whatever the case is, I think it’s super cool to see someone succeed in their in their favorite thing to do.”
As much as he likes to see others learn, Naylor considers himself a perpetual student of the game.
“I think you can learn a lot from others. I try to learn a lot from people, whether they’re younger or older than me, whether they have five years less than me or five years more than me. I don’t really judge them on their time in the game or age. I just judge them on their knowledge. I think knowledge is power, so I try my best to take information from every source I can. Coaches, players, retired players. I like to learn. I think if you have a lot of tools in your toolkit, you’ll benefit at the end of the day. If you kind of limit yourself to being like a one-trick pony, it kind of hurts you sometimes. And I’ve been both. I’ve been the one-trick pony, and then I had to learn that it’s a game of adjustments and a game of kind of maybe doing things different sometimes.”
No one can accuse Naylor of being a one-trick pony; he’s one base shy of tying his record from last year, an impossible-seeming 30 bags from a slower-footed first baseman. Naylor credits fellow Canadian Dave McKay, the first base coach in Arizona, for teaching him a ton about the mechanics of stealing bases, as well as Mariners first base coach Eric Young Jr. for helping him study pitchers and understand advance scouting to triple his stolen base output for the second consecutive year.
“I just try to find ways to win,” said Naylor.
Naylor does not shy from doing what it takes to win. Some of his best accountability partners? His brothers, Bo and Myles.
“I try to improve my whole game every off season. I try to look back at the season—where I failed, what I didn’t do as well, and how it can get better, and then God willing, get better. In the off season you have a lot of time to think, you’re not really playing the game anymore. So I try to do a lot of thinking with my brothers, and we break down each other’s games and talk to each other a lot.”
He credits brother Bo with helping him get his swing back over the All-Star Break to where it was over the second half.
“We spent the All Star Break together, and he like broke down everything in my swing. And he said, you know, you need to start going back to this and doing this again and doing that. And he really helped me tremendously. He’s a big voice in my career and someone I listen to every day and talk to every day or every other day.”
While the off-season is likely coming sooner than anyone had hoped, Naylor is ready to reconnect with the helpers who have helped him, his brothers.
“I look forward to just spending time with them, just discussing baseball while we’re watching a TV show or a movie, sitting in our backyard, or I don’t know, walking our dogs in the snow. Just chit chatting about how we can get better together. That’s something we do every off-season, just try to get better together.”
Clearly, Naylor is close with his family, now centralized three time zones away from Seattle, but isn’t unhappy about the choice he’s made to sign here. For the deep thinker Naylor, the first year is just the beginning.
“I’ve really enjoyed this organization,” said Naylor. “That’s why my wife and I chose to be here. Love the guys here. Coaching staff’s awesome. City’s beautiful. I look forward to kind of getting more comfortable here, and maybe I observed a lot this year just to see how things are ran.”
It helps, too, that the fanbase has embraced him so well – something Naylor is appreciative of, especially the fans who shout encouragement when he is struggling (“that doesn’t happen everywhere”) – and have been freely expressing their creativity in supporting him. Is a bunch of grown men in sailor suits (“Naylor’s Sailors”) a little weird? Maybe so, but who cares.
“Everyone’s weird in their own way. But that’s what makes you so beautiful and so perfect for who you are. And if you’re not willing to accept it, you’re not willing to accept it, that is what it is. But for those who are, I think you get the best out of the person if you’re willing to accept who they are. And you have a ton of different personalities in this sport, and in life in general. I think everyone is who they’re meant to be.”
cause you deserved the 
while you were living! Your voice command and echoed throughout the entire arena,” James wrote 
