Guardians' Bo Naylor: Unlikely to break camp in majors
The Guardians would prefer for Naylor to open the year at Triple-A Columbus, where he could play consistently and get more reps under his belt before getting promoted to the majors for good sometime this summer, Mandy Bell of MLB.com reports. "He's 22 years old," manager Terry Francona said. "We told him it's not always on your timetable... but if you knock the door down, that sort of makes the timetable. But I think he's got a really good head situated really well. He's got a pretty good outlook."
While Naylor is Cleveland's catcher of the future and made his big-league debut already last season, the addition of Mike Zunino this offseason made it clear that Cleveland wasn't ready to hand Naylor the keys right out of the gate this year. As Bell notes, the expectation is for Naylor to get the call sometime this year to start sharing the catching duties with Zunino. Bryan Lavastida is the favorite to win the backup job to begin the season.
