Everyone knows how important pitching is to a team. It doesn’t matter how good your bats are, if you give up double digits hits every night. But the pitching staff doesn’t just mean the guys throwing the balls 100 miles an hour, it also means the brains behind the plate.
A Different Point of View
A catcher is the only player who looks at the whole field. They can see where the fielders are positioned, where the umps stand, and where the baserunners are at. They have a role perhaps more unique than the pitcher, and while we give a pitcher grace with batting, we rarely do the same for catchers.
This is not true of all ball clubs. Cleveland, historically, has floated catchers who hit below league average. Many teams look for unicorns like Mike Piazza, Pudge Rodriguez, or Yadier Molina, the guys who hit hard and call amazing games. Cleveland on the other hand recognizes the value of a defensive catcher and a mood maker.
Cleveland has been blessed with some amazing catchers. Current First Base Coach, Sandy Alomar, was a six time All Star (including his rookie year), won a Gold Glove, and was the AL rookie of the year. Only two other catchers have received Gold Gloves as rookies (Fisk and Bench). Alomar was the unofficially recognized team leader of the Indians during their 1995-99 run when they won two pennants.
So if an organization groks the importance of a catcher so much, what the hell happened with Bo Naylor?
The Road to the Show
Flashback to 2023. We were just past the Player Lockout, the base sizes were increased, there were limits on how many pick-off attempts a pitcher could make, the NL decided to pick up the DH rule (a mistake in my opinion), and the Guardians signed third baseman José Ramírez to a 5-year, $124 million extension with the Cleveland Guardians. It remains the largest contract awarded in franchise history, and included a full “no-trade” clause.
In December, Cleveland had signed free-agent catcher Mike Zunino to a one-year deal for $6 million. At that time, we had our hero, Austin Hedges but the man couldn’t hit and was getting up there. Zunino seemed like potential to … someone or another.
When the front office let Austin Hedges walk after 2022 and signed Mike Zunino for 2023, the reaction from the analytical side of the fanbase ranged from deeply confused to outright terrified. Sure, Hedgey’s bat was an anemic .163 in 2022, but for fans of the Guards it was strange to see them prioritize thump over fielding.
Well. Proving the fans fears right, the drop-off behind the plate wasn’t just a step down from Hedges to Zununo, it was a free fall off a cliff. In the pre-ABS world, Hedges was a wizard at stealing a strike by framing a pitch. He could trick an Umps’ eyes to make a ball look like a strike. On the other hand, Zunino had recently had major surgery that impacted his nerves and shoulder. His pitch framing was crap, very clearly losing his pitchers count-leverage.
Remember those changes to the base sizes and pick-offs? That brought in a world where teams were running wild. And the Guards put a catcher back there who literally could not throw. Zunino’s arm strength and pop time were in the bottom 10% of the league. Base runners weren’t just stealing on him; they were practically walking to second base.
Let’s Go Bo!
Fan eyes turned to the Columbus Clippers in AAA, where the younger brother of our wild Canadian Goose (Josh Naylor) was raking it up. In ‘22, Bo had a practically insane .888 OPS. He was a 20/20 guy, with 20 steals and 20 home runs. So when he got the call in 2023, we all prayed he’d be able to carry that skill up to the majors.
From June to the end of the 2023 season, Bo had a 39 game streak where he hit .321 with a 1.13 OPS. This means he wasn’t just getting on base frequently but also hitting for significant power, with a combination of high batting average, walks, and extra-base hits. Bo ended the season with 11 homes, a .809 OPS, and a .273 average. Just looking at the batting, and you can see why fans were screaming for Bo:
| 2023 Stats | Mike Zunino (42 Games) | Bo Naylor (67 Games) |
|---|---|---|
| Batting Average (AVG) | .177 | .237 |
| On-Base Percentage (OBP) | .271 | .339 |
| Slugging Percentage (SLG) | .306 | .470 |
| On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS) | .676 (Career .576 with CLE) | .809 |
| Home Runs (HR) | 3 | 11 |
| Strikeout Rate (K%) | 44.0% (Worst in MLB) | 23.0% (League Average) |
Want a great memory? July 14, 2023, against the Texas Rangers, the Naylor brothers etched their names into the MLB history books by hitting home runs in the exact same frame. It was Bo’s 21st big league game, and he absolutely crushed a 435-foot, two-run monster shot off Jon Gray. Just a few batters later in that exact same third inning, big brother Josh stepped up and ripped a two-run shot of his own.
A Year of Growth
How did we end up here a mere 3 years later? It was due to the one place Bo really struggled: catching.
When you compare batting, Bo was a massive upgrade. But catching? Well, he was better but not stellar. For that, we needed Hedges. In 2024, Hedgey was brought back and stepped into his role of mood maker, but also mentor. And we can prove this by looking at the numbers.
| Season & Player | Pitch Framing (Runs / Percentile) | Blocks Above Average | Pop Time to 2B | Caught Stealing % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’23 Mike Zunino | -7 runs (7th %tile) | -5 (Bottom 5%) | 2.06 seconds | 15% |
| ’23 Bo Naylor | +2 runs (66th %tile) | +1 (Slightly Above) | 1.93 seconds | 19% |
| ’24 Bo Naylor | +7 runs (91st %tile) | -1 (Average) | 1.89 seconds | 23% |
| ’24 Austin Hedges | +8 runs (94th %tile) | +4 (Elite) | 1.99 seconds | 22% |
To understand these numbers, Catcher Catcher Framing Runs (FR) and Blocks Above Average (Blocks) are cumulative stats (higher is better). Pop Time measures how fast they get the ball to second base on a steal (lower is better, league average is ~2.00 seconds).
When Bo took over for Zunino in 2023, he wasn’t just an upgrade at the plate; he single-handedly plugged the leaks in the defense. Zunino was costing the team 7 runs on framing alone and letting everything get past him . Bo came in as a rookie and immediately posted a positive framing run value and a lightning-fast 1.93 pop time, cooling down opposing running games.
Under Hedgey’s mentorship in 2024, Bo Naylor turned into an absolute defensive superstar.
Crashing Back to Earth
Jumping ahead to May 2026, Bo’s numbers didn’t just dip, they plummeted into Zunino levels. His framing fell to league average, his pop time slowed, and his caught-stealing rate dropped to an abysmal 14%. Yeah, worse than Zunino.
In fact, in 2026 all of Bo’s numbers were down, and some of that had started in 2025 with his batting. A lot was made in spring about how Bo was changing up his swing (doing away with the toe tap), but what wasn’t quite as obvious until we got to the regular season, his game calling shat the bed.
While Hedges is famous for having a batting average under the Mendoza Line, the pitching staff has historically thrived under him. In 2026, with Bo behind the dish, the pitch-calling and game management regressed heavily. Bo was only throwing out 14% of baserunners (10-for-71) on stolen base attempts. The opposing teams were essentially running at will, putting pitchers in constant stress. Reminds you of Zunino, right?
The numbers don’t lie. You need look no further than how the pitching staff performed based on who was wearing the gear:
| Catcher | Team ERA in Starts | Record in Starts | Run Support Per Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Hedges | 3.14 | 14–7 | 3.2 runs |
| Bo Naylor | 4.68 | 11–17 | 4.8 runs |
A full point higher to ERAs. That’s an extra run a game (actually a run and a half).
While the Guards gave Bo a month to sort things out, the had to accept reality. Hedges was having a banner year (his BA is .250 right now) but he’s also a 33 year old. His knees aren’t going to last forever. Cleveland needed a second defensive champion. The Guards needed Patrick Bailey.
What’s Next for Bo?
While Bo was optioned to AAA, he actually went to the Arizona Training Complex first. Why? Because this isn’t just a “fix your swing” demotion. No, this is a “find your soul” mental health retreat.
Bo’s issues aren’t just mechanical. The psychological concept of ‘the Yips’ are well known to baseball fans. The yips are a sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills in athletes, often characterized by involuntary muscle spasms or jerks, particularly affecting fine motor skills. This condition can be caused by factors such as performance anxiety or neurological issues and is commonly seen in sports like golf and baseball.
The odds are the front office knows that. In the last two years, Bo lost his brother when Josh went to Arizona (and now Seattle, where he’s doing well). His batting levelled out as the Majors figured out how to pitch to him (this happens to pretty much everyone), and he ended up having to completely re-engineered his swing by abandoning his natural toe-tap.
Consider the immense weight of trying to steer a championship-caliber pitching staff while entirely losing his own defensive identity. To give Bo a chance to get back to who he was. He is only 26 years old. He has the raw athleticism that made him a 20/20 unicorn in the minors, and we’ve already seen the statistical heights he can reach behind the plate when his mind is clear.
The pick up of Patrick Bailey isn’t a permanent eviction notice for Bo, even if many of us immediately jump to last year when Tristan McKenzie was sent down to Arizona as well. Unlike Bo, who went to Arizona with his elite athleticism fully intact, McKenzie went to Arizona to see if his elbow could even function in a low-pressure environment. Bo now has the luxury of time. He doesn’t have to rush back to save the team because Bailey and a rejuvenated, hitting-.250 Austin Hedges have the bridge fully covered.
Cleveland gave Bo a chance to be the exceptions to their historical rule, the fabled unicorn who could smash 20 homers and control a game script. He folded under the pressure, and the cold hard math of a 4.68 Catcher ERA forced the front office’s hand. But if Bo can use this reset to find the defensive swagger he possessed under Hedgey’s wing in 2024, the road back to the Show is wide open.
Until then, we rely on the brains behind the plate. Praise be to the Hedgehog.
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