Josh Naylor can no longer hurt the Chicago White Sox on the regular.
That is because the Cleveland Guardians continued to slash payroll when they traded their first baseman to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Thankfully, the Guardians have to live with the small-market economic model, which means trading players they can no longer afford once they reach free agency. Naylor was set for free agency after the 2025 season, so that is why Cleveland jumped at the chance to get something back instead of losing him for nothing after next season.
Naylor goes from having 13 opportunities to destroy White Sox pitching to just three.
Not many players feasted off Sox pitching quite like Naylor. He posted a .342/.382/.572 slash line in 50 career games against the Southsiders. He has an eye-popping 147 OPS+ against the White Sox.
The only thing the Sox pitching staff could hang its hat on was Naylor had just eight career home runs against the White Sox.
Although it feels like those numbers should be higher with how he just kept producing soul-crushing hits after soul-crushing hits. Especially with how well he hit at Rate Field.
He posted a career .359 average on the Southside with a 1.104 OPS in 27 games played at the Rate.
Naylor has slashed .980/.990/1 million against the White Sox in his career.
— Chuck Garfien (@ChuckGarfien) December 21, 2024
Leaving the AL Central. https://t.co/0DWHt2VYwL
Naylor hit .340 with a 1.089 OPS and four home runs in 13 games this past season against the White Sox.
This is a guy who in 2022 drove in seven late runs against the Sox to rally Cleveland back from a six-run deficit. He crushed a game-tying grand slam in the ninth to tie the game and then a three-run go-ahead dinger in extras.
This man terrorized the Sox when he was a member of the Guardians. That is why this news of Naylor should be greeted with joy and relief.
Naylor can only torture the White Sox just three times in 2025 when the Diamondbacks visit in June.
The Guardians are replacing Naylor with veteran Carlos Santana who will be making what seems like his 20th return to Cleveland.
Santana has not destroyed the Sox like Naylor. In fact, he has a career .221 average against Chicago's AL team.
Now, all that needs to happen is for Naylor's former teammate Jose Ramirez and Minnesota Twins' Bryan Buxton to leave the division, and the White Sox will no longer have to be crushed regularly by multiple players. However, someone is always coming up behind those guys to dominate the Sox.
This franchise will have to deal with Bobby Witt Jr. for a long time. At least, you can cross Naylor off the list of players who kill the Sox beyond three or four games a season.