October 15, 2025
By Kevin Glew
Cooperstowners in Canada
Seattle Mariners slugger Josh Naylor is making history this postseason.
The Mississauga, Ont., native, who was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 24, has nine hits in his last four games and has helped the M’s to a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
With his 3-for-4 performance in Game 2 against the Blue Jays on Monday in which he had a home run and a stolen base, Naylor managed to accomplish the following feats:
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame has also confirmed that on Monday Naylor became the first Canadian to ever hit a home run and steal a base in the same postseason game.
The 5-foot-10, 235-pound Naylor has become one of the Mariners’ most popular players. Not only has he been pounding the ball with the M’s – including hitting .299 with nine home runs, 10 doubles and an .831 OPS in 54 regular season games – but he has also been tearing up the base paths. He had 18 stolen bases with the M’s and a surprising 30 on the season.
In 93 games with the D-Backs earlier in 2025, Naylor batted .292 with 11 home runs and 59 RBIs. He was in his first season with the D-Backs after being traded to them by the Cleveland Guardians in December.
Overall, Naylor is in his seventh major league campaign.
After honing his skills with the Ontario Blue Jays and Junior National Team, Naylor was selected 12th overall by the Miami Marlins in the 2015 MLB draft. Following tenures in the Marlins and San Diego Padres organizations, he was traded to the Guardians, along with Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.), on August 31, 2020.
This is Naylor’s fourth trip to the MLB postseason. He competed in the playoffs with the Guardians in 2020, 2022 and 2024. His 29 career postseason hits are the third-most by a Canadian behind only Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) who had 38 and Tip O’Neill (Woodstock, Ont.) who collected 35.
Naylor will look to add to that total in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series tonight, which will see the Mariners host the Blue Jays at T-Mobile Park.
The Naylor boys all began with Mississauga North Baseball where their father coached.
Thanks for the great write up on Josh Naylor.
Thanks for reading this.
Well now everyone should know Josh from Bo!