Even in a season of 162 games, every sweep feels like a potentially massive momentum shift.
The Seattle Mariners hit something of an emotional low point when they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in early June. In fact, the third loss of that series dropped them to 33-34, which would be the last time all season they’d finish play with a record under .500.
But evidently, then-Diamondbacks first baseman Josh Naylor made a strong enough impression at the time that the course of the Mariners’ season, and possibly entire future, may have changed for the better.
How Josh Naylor’s big series may have changed everything
Earlier this week, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander went on Seattle Sports’ “Brock and Salk” live show, and told the story of how trading for Naylor (and third baseman Eugenio Suárez) may have hinged upon the big series Arizona’s offense put together at Chase Field against Mariners pitchers.
“It was just a challenging series for us, and they were a challenging team to figure out because they’re a good team that had injuries. So I didn’t want to be disrespectful to their season in any way, but just kept checking in with (Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye) over and over and over again about potentially Geno’s availability and Josh’s availability,” Hollander said.
“They reached a point in their season where they felt like it was time to at least listen. They called us, we exchanged proposals over the course of a couple of weeks. Finally, he called me just kind of out of the blue. We hadn’t talked in four or five days and (they) said, ‘Would you do this?’ And my gut was we would.”
Naylor, who recently re-signed with the Mariners on a five-year, $92.5 million contract, went ballistic in the June series against Seattle, going 8-for-13 with a home run, two doubles, and six RBIs. Suárez went 0-for-9 in the first two games against the M’s, but had three hits, a home run, and four RBIs in the series finale.
While Suárez remains a free agent and might not be back with the Mariners due to his age and diminished production after the trade, the fact that Naylor might have wound up a Mariner for the long haul in part because of three well-timed games makes getting swept a lot less painful.
