Not to mention he hits left handed, something that we seem to hear about quite often as an asset since both Joseph and Hoskins are downgraded as right handed hitting first baseman.
Another thing that impressed me about Naylor was that for a young power hitter he doesn't strike out much [84 KO's in a full season]. Someone [I believe it was fish] who was commenting that it bothered him somewhat that the Phils trades lately always seem to be centered around surrendering a young guy [albeit not necessarily a great prospect] for a veteran guy and I agreed with him.
A Hellickson for Naylor deal would have gone against that trend. Look, I admit it....I have never been able to get too excited about guys that I KNOW are simply passing through town and in Hellickson's case I have always felt that and was disappointed that he re-upped since I am pretty sure he will never get that multi-year deal he covets with the Phils.
Had this deal gone through the Phils could have possibly had one of Thompson, Eflin, Lively or Morgan in the rotation and Naylor coming up through the system as a young power hitting first baseman.
Instead? A guy that we root for only so we can move him in July for a guy we HOPE might be the prospect that Naylor already is. I would have strongly supported this deal, no one bad mouthed the Marlins when they selected Naylor with the 12th pick in the entire nation in 2015. No one.