Chapter 1: Why did the Mariners decide to re-sign Josh Naylor?
Good morning, everyone. We'll be getting started in just a second as everybody files in, but as I'm sure somebody has already said, just a reminder to have your cell phones on silent or vibrate. We'll start with a couple opening statements, and then we'll take questions. We are passing mics, so please raise your hand, and we'll pass you a mic for questions.
So I think everyone knows, basically everybody here at the head table, obviously Justin Hollander, our Executive Vice President and General Manager, Jerry DePoto, President of Baseball Operations, the guest of honor today, who we're very excited to have back with us, Josh Naylor, and his representative, Mark. So, Jerry.
First, I guess it feels like Josh never actually left, so we're welcoming him back to a place he's been. As such, we don't have a jersey, but we do have five more years of Josh Naylor as a Mariner, which we're all thrilled by. This was about as simple a decision as we could make organizationally.
After acquiring Josh mid-season at the trade deadline, the way he fit in in our clubhouse, in the community, the way the fan base embraced him, and frankly, a lot of the magical things that he did on the field. I can't recall ever encountering a player with a higher baseball IQ, seeing things on the field that no one else really sees, and
You know, it's a special trait and he can also really hit, which is not a bad thing either. So, you know, we're all thrilled to have Josh as part of the Mariners family moving forward. Chantel, Nix, and the Naylor family now part of ours. You know, we're working on Bo.
Now, with that, you know, can't thank Mark enough for the seamless way this all came together and Justin for the hard work that he did in negotiating the deal itself. So good day for the Mariners, good day for the Nailers, and we get to be together for numerous more seasons. So good for us. I'm super excited, super thankful, super blessed right now.
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Chapter 2: What does Josh Naylor love about playing in Seattle?
Very humbled. I can't thank my family enough for getting me to this point. Without them, I'm nothing. I don't get to this position I'm in now. God is good and he's good all the time. I just can't thank my people enough. They are super influential to me, super positive towards everything I do.
Ever since I was a little kid, this has been like a goal for all three of us as brothers, and then my parents, my aunt, my grandma,
like the support is just, it was incredible from the beginning of our time playing baseball to now, and it continues to be great, and they just want us to succeed as much as we can in whatever we decide to do, and I got to give them all the thanks, them and God, because without them, again, I'm nothing, and I would not be in this seat right now.
Questions? Start with Adam over here. Josh, congrats. Thank you. The last year has been pretty adventurous, momentous for you, obviously getting traded a couple times, arriving here, becoming a father, reaching free agency.
Just what were the emotions yesterday when you sat down and finally got a chance to sign that contract?
I mean, brought back a lot of memories as a kid. My dad coached us when we were younger, so brought back those memories of playing on a field in our hometown and, you know, trying to win a ballgame with your little 10-year-old friends around the corner and...
Then it brought back some memories of playing amateur baseball with the Ontario Blue Jays, who I was fortunate to play with and the national team. I got to travel around the world with them before, you know, I entered Pro Bowl. So just a lot of nostalgia, kind of a lot of those little young memories. And to get me to this point today, I always tell
players or even like little kids I work with in the off season sometimes like play for the kid inside you you know play for that little 10 12 11 year old whoever like however old you want to set that number at but play for that kid and always remind that kid that you know it's just a game and you're here to have fun you're here to play hard and here to compete but it's just a game it's that little kid's game at the end of the day so I always try to
talk to like my inner kid in me and remind myself that it is just a game and I'm here to have fun, work hard, be a great teammate. God willing, win the game at the end of the day, knowing sometimes you're going to lose. But it's all about that little kid inside you.
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Chapter 3: How did Josh Naylor's family influence his decision to stay?
So it's kind of an easy decision for us knowing that we love the city. We love the team. They enjoyed coming to the ballpark every single day. So it was just like this is kind of our main priority to come back here. We wanted to come back here. My whole family loved it. My wife really loved it. And we can raise our kids here, family here for the next five years, which is super cool.
Josh, for a lot of players, free agency is the ultimate dream, getting the opportunity to test the open market, see what interest is out there.
Just what was that process like for you, and could you have imagined that you would have such clarity to want to have a team to want to come back to, you know, just a few short months ago, given that you weren't here for all that long, but, you know, now you're back?
Yeah, obviously you could attest to the open market, but most of the free agents do. For me, I think talking to my agent, talking to my family, we knew where we wanted to go and we got a deal done at a fair rate that we wanted. You know, as much as it is, as great as it is to get the most you can, I am more than comfortable here. I love this place. I love this fan base. I love this city.
I love my teammates and I'm super thankful to be back. We got a fair deal done and I'm just grateful. I'm blessed. I'm not very greedy in that sense. I just want to win baseball games. I want to win for the city.
I felt like that last loss, you know, not that I had to come back, but I wanted to come back to give this fan base and this city and my teammates and their families a World Series in the next five years or multiple World Series or multiple pennants. Like, just the best thing I could give back, I want to give back. Um, they deserve it. Um, my teammates deserve it. My family deserves it.
Their families deserve it. The head office and their families deserve it. All the coaches deserve it. So I just, I had such a blaster. I wanted to run it back with these guys and do it all again.
Josh, was there a moment that you knew that you were coming back? Was there a singular experience or maybe a collection where you said, this is, this is where I want to be longterm?
Um, I mean, from day one, it was just love and it was awesome. And then, so I started on the road. I started in LA. I met the team on the road and it was great to see them. They all introduced themselves to me. And then players I knew from the past was awesome to see again. Me and Mooney had experiences in San Diego together. Me and Vargas, we rehabbed in Cleveland together.
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Chapter 4: What emotions did Josh Naylor experience when signing the contract?
Josh, it seems like you're somebody who has known, who has such a clear direction about the way you've wanted your life to go, the work that you've put in to get there, but the business of baseball sometimes takes some of that agency away from you. You were traded several times before landing here.
What did you learn from each of those stops, and was it ever a challenge to kind of give yourself fully to the fans like you did, or was that something you learned from each of those stops?
Yeah, I think experiences help you a lot in everything you do in your life, whether it's sports or business or just, yeah, really, it goes into everything. Experience is super helpful. So every year I kind of try to grow, you know, 1% better than I was the year before. I try to learn from my failures and try to capitalize on my successes.
But going into free agency, I think this year was different than many or all the years I've had so far. I just I told myself I just want to play hard. I wanted to have fun every single day, leave it out on the field, be the best team that I could. And I did that every year, but I wanted to emphasize it more this year. And, you know, God willing, find a home.
And this was the home I found, which is I'm super happy about. And Can't wait for opening day. I wish spring training started tomorrow, to be honest, to see the guys again and the fans. Yeah, I think experience has taught me a lot.
They taught me how to be a little bit more mature, taught me how to handle pressure a little bit better in big game scenarios, taught me how to kind of keep my heart rate down. So, yeah.
What's good, y'all? It's Von Miller, Super Bowl MVP, SAG Master, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets real talk. Every week, I'm bringing you inside the game, from locker room stories to league-wide headlines. You want football IQ, locker room insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the league?
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Josh, you talked about just the importance to you in winning and wanting to run it back. You know, when you look at this team, you know, you, Julio and Cal are under team control for really the rest of the decade. The starting rotation is coming back.
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