Josh Naylor spent much of Seattle’s 2026 season doing what ballplayers do when they believe the club needs them: taking the field, grinding through discomfort and keeping the details mostly private. The fuller picture arrived after the season, when the Mariners first baseman had right-wrist surgery last Saturday to repair his triangular fibrocartilage complex, or TFCC.
Key takeaways
- Naylor appeared in 152 games without an injured-list stint before undergoing surgery on his right wrist.
- His 10 home runs, .350 slugging percentage and 57 RBIs were all career lows.
- Only two of his homers came after June 12, and he did not hit another after Aug. 8.
- He still stole 30 bases, joining George Sisler as the only first basemen to reach that mark in consecutive seasons.
- With four years remaining on his contract, Naylor remains central to Seattle’s plans entering 2027.
A wrist issue behind a difficult season
The wrist was plainly bothering Naylor for a long stretch. He was often seen grimacing or loosening up the area after swings during the summer, with those signs reaching back to June and possibly earlier. Seattle announced the procedure two days after it took place.
Naylor had also dealt with shoulder trouble during the Mariners’ 2025 postseason. Whether that issue followed him into 2026 was never fully established, because he did not want to make his health a public explanation for his performance.
Before the operation, Naylor said playing through pain was part of the job as he saw it. He said he loves being on the field for his teammates, his children, his family and Seattle’s fans, and did not want an injury to become an excuse. In his view, a player who is unwilling to compete through discomfort is in the wrong line of work.
Still, the offensive falloff was hard to miss. Naylor finished at 0.6 FanGraphs WAR, 23rd among 26 qualified first basemen, after producing 3.2 WAR in 2025. His 95 wRC+ sat below the league-average mark of 100 and represented a steep decline from his 128 figure a year earlier.
The power loss was especially costly for a hitter Seattle expected to anchor the middle of the order. His slugging percentage dropped 112 points to .350, the eighth-largest year-over-year decline among 177 qualified Major League hitters. The 10-homer finish came nowhere near the impact expected after his electric first three months in Seattle following the 2025 Trade Deadline deal with Arizona.
Naylor’s production also dried up in RBI situations. He posted a .616 OPS with runners in scoring position, well below the .828 OPS he had compiled in those spots across his first seven big league seasons. His 57 RBIs were nearly half of the 108 he drove in during his 2024 All-Star campaign with Cleveland.
Ownership, speed and the road back
Naylor did not try to shift responsibility for Seattle’s unmet expectations. As a hitter counted on to create runs, he said he did not deliver his share and felt badly for the players and staff around him. He said the offseason will require an honest review of what worked, what did not and how he can adjust his game.
There was one unusual bright spot on the bases. Naylor swiped 30 bags, a remarkable total for a first baseman, and became the first player at the position to post 30 or more steals in back-to-back years since George Sisler did it from 1920 through 1922.
Seattle’s late-season conversations repeatedly returned to accountability, and Naylor said the group has room to improve in that area as well as in its day-to-day play. He did not frame it as a single flaw inside the clubhouse, instead saying a team can keep growing in every part of the game.
That growth will matter greatly in 2027. Naylor has four years left on the deal that stands as the biggest free-agent commitment Jerry Dipoto has made to a position player. The Mariners did not sign him merely for steady at-bats and aggressive baserunning; they signed him to be a lineup-changing run producer. A healthy wrist and a return to his usual impact at the plate would go a long way toward making that investment look like the one Seattle envisioned.
