CLEVELAND — Clearly, Josh Naylor should be headed to the Texas for the All-Star Game. While the fan voting may not reflect that yet, at least the Guardians first baseman is finally starting to get the recognition he deserves.
Major League Baseball on Monday selected Naylor as its American League Player of the Week for the period from June 17-23. During that stretch, Naylor batted .400 with three home runs, eight RBIs, and seven runs scored across six games, with Cleveland going 5-1 in those contests.
Naylor, who got off to a hot start to the season, had been scuffling since mid-May with a .167 average and .576 OPS since May 15. That all changed beginning with this past Tuesday's game against the Seattle Mariners, and his surge was punctuated with a two-homer performance on Wednesday that helped kick off an active five-game winning streak for the Guards. On Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays, Naylor belted his 20th homer of the year, already equaling his career-high just 75 games into the 2024 campaign.
Yet despite his gaudy numbers, Naylor entered Monday well off the pace in the AL All-Star balloting, sitting a distant third among league first basemen. The top two vote-getters at the position will advance to the final round of voting to determine the starter for the Midsummer Classic, with the first round of balloting concluding this Thursday at noon (fans can vote HERE).
This is the first time Naylor has earned Player of the Week honors, and he is also the first Guardian to be named Player of the Week since Steven Kwan in September of 2022. Over in the National League, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani took home the award after hitting .458 with four homers and 11 RBIs during the week.