Guardians All-Star first baseman reaches new milestone as postseason approaches

The Cleveland Guardians have made tremendous progress in terms of hitting compared to last season. A year ago they were the worst home run team in baseball, now they are in the middle of the pack.

A major reason for this dramatic turnaround was the contributions of first baseman and designated hitter Josh Naylor.

Naylor has been one of the best power hitters in Cleveland's lineup all season, and the All-Star rookie set a new single-season slugging milestone on Wednesday night.

In the second inning of the Guardians' game against the Minnesota Twins, Naylor hit a solo home run to right-center field. This was his 30th home run of the season, the first time he hit that many home runs in the regular season. His previous career high was 20 home runs, which he hit in 2022.

Naylor is one of eight other first basemen in Cleveland franchise history to accomplish this feat. Some of the players on this list include all-time greats such as Jim Thome, Hal Trosky and Carlos Santana.

As impressive as that performance is, Naylor has struggled at bat over the past month, hitting just .232/.301/.402 in his last 30 games, including just four home runs, which is unusual for the power hitter.

Hopefully that home run will get the older Naylor brother to bat. The Guardians are close to securing a postseason berth, but they'll need their clean-up hitter to truly make the World Series in October.