Mariners, Josh Naylor in agreement on five-year contract: Source

Perhaps it’s fitting that the first major free-agent signing of the MLB offseason is the deal that seemed all but inevitable. Josh Naylor and the Seattle Mariners have agreed to a five-year contract pending a physical, a source confirmed to The Athletic. Financial terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

The 28-year-old Naylor was an ideal fit for the Mariners on and off the field after coming over from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a trade deadline swap. He batted .299/.341/.490 with nine homers and 33 RBIs in 54 regular-season games for Seattle, shocked everyone by going 19-for-19 stealing bases after the trade and quickly earned cult hero status among Mariners fans for his relentless energy as he helped power the team to their first AL West title since 2001.

But it was in the playoffs where Naylor really made an impression in the Pacific Northwest. Naylor led the Mariners with a .340 batting average in the postseason while hitting three home runs in 12 games as the Mariners fell just short of their first-ever pennant in a seven-game ALCS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Now Naylor will be sticking around to help them continue that World Series quest.

Naylor ranked No. 14 on The Athletic’s free agent big board, with Tim Britton projecting a four-year, $92 million contract.

One area where Naylor’s game sharply improved in Seattle was his base running. Naylor finished 30-for-32 stealing bases overall last season despite never stealing more than 10 bases in any previous season. And he did so while remaining one of the league’s slowest runners, instead relying on his timing and baseball IQ to catch opponents off guard. He also provided one of the strangest moments of Game 7 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays when he was called out after jumping in the path of a ball being thrown across the diamond for a double play.

Of course, Naylor’s bat is still the biggest draw. He’s hit .275/.336/.464 with a 124 OPS+ in four full big-league seasons, averaging 25 homers and 105 RBIs per 150 games. That made him arguably the third-best left-handed hitter on the market.

While the Mariners now have a fixture at first base for the next five years, they will still need to make up for the likely departure of fellow deadline acquisition Eugenio Suárez, who hit 13 home runs in 53 games for Seattle after being acquired from Arizona in July.