The first notable domino has fallen in the 2025 offseason. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Seattle Mariners are bringing back first baseman Josh Naylor. Naylor is reportedly signing a five-year deal to return to Seattle.
The specifics of the deal wasn’t revealed until a day after Passan’s report. Naylor signed for $92.5 million over five years ($18.5 million annually).
Naylor was projected to sign a five-year deal worth $90 million by MLB Trade Rumors and a four-year deal worth $80 million by Fangraph’s crowd-sourced projections. The details of his extension with Seattle have yet to be disclosed.
Naylor was brought to Seattle at the trade deadline from Arizona. The Mariners sent two top-20 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, to Arizona to acquire the now 28-year-old.
The former Cleveland Guardian had a breakout in 2023 where he posted a career-best .308 average and 130 OPS+ across 452 at-bats. Then, the following year, he had a massive 31-homer season to go along with 108 RBIs. To top it off, in 2025 he hit 20 homers, drove in 92 runs, and posted the second-highest OPS of his career at .831. Over the last three seasons, Naylor has been one of the more prolific offensive first baseman in the league.
First base is of course an extremely important position for the New York Mets this offseason. With Pete Alonso on the open market, Naylor could have been a potential replacement. He was comfortably the third best option among free agent first baseman behind Alonso and Cody Bellinger. For reference, MLB Trade Rumors projects a $28 million annual salary for Bellinger and a $27.5 million annual salary for Alonso.
Naylor is really the first of many dominoes expected to fall in the coming weeks as far as free agency goes. The Mets, like many teams around the league, have a lot of work to do over the coming months. However, Seattle ultimately locked in one of the best first base options on the market early.
