The Arizona Diamondbacks have acquired their Christian Walker replacement. The D-backs have added Josh Naylor in a two-player, three-asset trade with the Cleveland Guardians, reports The Athletic. Cleveland will receive righty Slade Cecconi and Arizona’s competitive balance draft pick in the trade. Neither team has announced the deal.
Naylor, 27, was a trade candidate coming into the offseason because he is a year away from free agency and projected to make $12 million or so through arbitration. That would make him Cleveland’s second highest-paid player behind José Ramírez. Also, the Guardians have a ready-made first-base replacement in top prospect Kyle Manzardo.
This past season Naylor authored a .243/.320/.456 batting line with a career-high 31 home runs. He’ll help Arizona replace the power they lost when Walker signed with the Houston Astros, though Naylor is not nearly the defender that Walker is (few are), so he could see plenty of action at DH with Pavin Smith seeing time at first base…