Description
Bo Naylor is a Canadian professional baseball catcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022. The Cleveland Indians selected Naylor in the first round, with the 29th pick, in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with Cleveland, rather than enroll at Texas A&M, for a $2,578,138 signing bonus.
He was assigned to the Arizona League Indians and spent the whole season there, with a batting average of .274 with two home runs and 17 runs batted in (RBI) in 33 games played. Naylor spent the 2019 season with the Lake County Captains. Over 107 games, he batted .243 with 11 home runs and 65 RBI.
Naylor did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he played with the Akron RubberDucks, slashing .188/.280/.332 with ten home runs and 44 RBI over 87 games. In June, Naylor was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game. In 2022, with Akron, Naylor had a .271 average, .898 OPS and six home runs. Naylor was promoted to the Columbus Clippers in June.
The Guardians selected Naylor’s contract on October 1st, 2022, adding him to their active roster. He made his major league debut the same day against the Kansas City Royals as a defensive replacement. He made his first start the next day.
Before the 2023 season, Naylor played for the Canadian national baseball team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The Guardians optioned Naylor to Columbus to start the 2023 season. He played in 67 games for Cleveland in 2023, hitting .237/.339/.470 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI. On May 4th, 2024, Naylor hit his first career grand slam off of Reid Detmers of the Los Angeles Angels.
Nolan Gorman is an American professional baseball second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Gorman was drafted by the Cardinals out of high school in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft. Gorman has been friends with fellow 2018 first round pick and Cardinals teammate Matthew Liberatore since they were five years old. Gorman was the first player born in the year 2000 to be drafted by an MLB team.
Gorman became one of the top prospects in baseball and played in their minor-league system before making his MLB debut and becoming part of their starting lineup in 2022. Gorman returned to Memphis to begin the 2022 season. After slashing .308/.367/.677 with 15 home runs and 23 RBIs in 34 games, the Cardinals announced on May 19 that they would be selecting his contract and promoting him to the major leagues to make his MLB debut the next day as the starting second baseman. In his first at-bat, he singled against Zach Thompson of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and finished the night one-for-three with a walk. On May 28th, Gorman hit his first MLB home run versus Adrian Houser of the Milwaukee Brewers in an 8-3 win. On June 21st against the Milwaukee Brewers, he had his first two–home run game.
Gorman hit the second of a record-tying four consecutive home runs on July 2nd, 2022, the 11th such occurrence in major league history. At Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Nolan Arenado, Gorman, Juan Yepez and Dylan Carlson all homered off Phillies starter Kyle Gibson with two outs in the first inning. It was the first time the Cardinals had accomplished the feat, and the first time that it occurred in the first inning. On September 19th, the Cardinals optioned him to Memphis. He remained there until the season’s end, when he was then added to the Cardinals’ roster for the Wild Card Series. Over 89 games and 283 at-bats with St. Louis, he slashed .226/.300/.420 with 14 home runs, 35 RBIs, and 13 doubles.
Gorman started for the Cardinals on 2023 Opening Day as their designated hitter. On May 22nd, 2023, Gorman was named the National League Player of the Week after batting .458 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. Gorman appeared in 119 games for the Cardinals, batting .236 with 27 home runs and 76 RBIs. He missed time during the season due to back injuries.
The featured 8 x 10 Photo has been signed by Cleveland Guardians Catcher Bo Naylor and St Louis Cardinals Second Baseman Nolan Gorman in blue. The Big Leaguers participated in the 2017 High School Home Run Derby on July 10th at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. With his older brother Josh cheering him on from the field, Bo Naylor mashed eight home runs in the second round and 15 overall to finish first out of seven participants. Gorman, with seven homers in each round–including eight into the upper deck–finished second. The Photo includes an official James Spence Authentication (JSA) hologram and matching COA for authenticity purposes.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.