How Josh Naylor left Mariners GM ‘blown away’ in meeting

Nov 20, 2025, 12:34 AM

Seattle Sports

In just three short months, Josh Naylor had already left an indelible impression on the Seattle Mariners’ organization.

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The slugging first baseman and trade-deadline addition had served as a key catalyst for the deepest postseason run in franchise history, and along the way he proved to be an invaluable asset both in his on-field production and his tone-setting tenacity.

In other words, Naylor had already wowed the M’s.

And then, during a meeting with Mariners brass after the season, he wowed them again.

After the M’s signed Naylor to a five-year, $92.5 million contract earlier in the week, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander highlighted a fascinating story from negotiations when he joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Tuesday.

Shortly after the Mariners’ playoff run ended, Hollander and M’s president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto flew to Arizona to meet with Naylor over lunch and set the groundwork for a potential long-term contract.

As Hollander explained, during these types of meetings with free agents, there’s typically a lot of discussion about the what the team will look like the following season. And indeed, that was the case here as well, Hollander said.

But Naylor went above and beyond.

Naylor wanted to know the details about all the highly regarded prospects in Seattle’s talent-laden farm system.

“He had done a lot of homework on our organization – not just on his teammates today, but on the guys he thought might be his teammates in ’26 or ’27 or ’28, our young players,” Hollander said. “He (asked) a lot of questions about them, wanting to get to learn more about them. He’d done like a video breakdown on a lot of them and had full write-ups on what he liked about them.

“It was really impressive. I was blown away.”

Hollander said the meeting lasted about four hours, but that it easily could have gone seven or eight.

“The conversation was very easy,” Hollander said. “And everybody at the table seemed focused on the same thing, which is Josh being with the Mariners and winning a World Series. And not just (that) we had a great year in 2025 and that was our apex, but like, really, how do we carry this forward?

“It was a very impressive presentation by him of what was important to him.”

Listen to the full conversation with Mariners general manager Justin Hollander at this link or in the video player at the top of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2 to 7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.