Former Mariners pitching prospect is rewriting the story of the Josh Naylor trade

Under no circumstances should the Seattle Mariners want to have the Josh Naylor trade back. That it was a major win for them in 2025 alone justifies its existence. But what if we told you it's proving to be a dramatically different story here in 2026, wherein Brandyn Garcia is dominating.

Truth be told, we had to go back to the archives to remind ourselves which swap with the Arizona Diamondbacks from last July involved Garcia, who became a top-30 prospect for Arizona afterward. There was also the Eugenio Suárez trade, after all, and neither of those looked remotely like a win for Arizona after the initial returns were tallied.

Garcia is changing that, and fast. Dig how the left-hander's rWAR for 2026 compares to Naylor:

• Josh Naylor: -0.2 rWAR
• Brandyn Garcia: 0.6 rWAR

That's a significant gap, yet it doesn't hit as a surprise. Naylor is still owning the basepaths and batting .309 since snapping a cold start back on April 13, but he has just a 92 OPS+. Garcia, meanwhile, has made 13 relief appearances and allowed just one run on seven hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts.

Brandyn Garcia is taking a major step forward while Josh Naylor is stuck in place

There is no platoon-split trickery at work here. Garcia is holding right-handed batters to a .418 OPS, even lower than the .533 OPS he has against left-handers.

The 26-year-old Rhode Island native just really is that nasty, and it's not even all thanks to a 97.1 mph average sinker. His sweeper is drawing a 57.1 Whiff%, the 15th-best of any pitch thrown at least 30 times this year.

Garcia also relied heavily on these same two pitches last year, albeit to no avail as he got rocked for a 5.65 ERA over 14 appearances for Seattle and Arizona. He's benefiting from being more aggressive this season, allowing himself to get ahead in more counts.

As a result, he's become a steady presence in a Diamondbacks bullpen that has mercifully turned a page from its dismal 2025 season. Its ERA is 3.92, down nearly a full run from last year's mark of 4.82.

For Naylor's part, his negative WAR is mostly related to his slow start, but not entirely. He's just plain not hitting for power, and the fact that his .344 SLG comes with diminished figures for exit velocity and hard-hit rate makes for a real concern. Here's guessing Mariners fans won't be surprised to hear that only five hitters have hit more ground-ball outs to the right side of the infield.

After what he did for them last year, this isn't enough cause for the Mariners to regret either the trade that brought Naylor to Seattle or the $92.5 million contract that kept him around. But even if they can still count the Naylor trade as a win, Garcia's ascent is making it look more and more like a win-win.

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