Diamondbacks' Josh Naylor is a Blend of Power and Intellect

The D-backs' powerful first baseman isn't just a hard swinger, he's a tough mental matchup.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Josh Naylor (22) reacts after losing his helmet on a swinging strike against the Baltimore Orioles at Chase Field in Phoenix on April 7, 2025. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Josh Naylor introduced a baseball to the Chase Field stands for the first time as a Diamondback on Thursday — crushing his first home run of the season to right field.

It was a high-emotion moment, as Chase Field erupted for their new first base slugger. Naylor's homer was the second of a back-to-back with Pavin Smith, as Arizona took a commanding 5-0 lead over the Orioles in the rubber match of a three-game series.

It was a first-pitch splitter that hung just in the bottom middle of the zone. The ball traveled just 384 feet, but at 101 MPH, and with a 25 degree launch angle. In layman's terms, that constitutes a laser of a line drive.

Naylor had been without his first homer for 12 games, despite hitting to a .302 average with five doubles prior to Wednesday's game. Following Wednesday's win, Naylor spoke to reporters, including Diamondbacks On SI's Jack Sommers about his approach.

"Honestly, I don't really search for the homers, I just search for good at-bats. Eventually they'll come, and they'll come in bunches. I'm just trying to have consistently good at-bats, hit the ball hard," Naylor said.

And while perhaps that intentionality isn't purely centered around leaving the yard, that doesn't mean Naylor is going up without a focused approach. When asked about the process leading to the homer, Naylor offered an intensely in-depth breakdown of how he set up that particular at-bat.

"First [time] up, he went splitter, front hip. I didn't budge. It was a good pitch. But that's not what I was looking for... Less than two outs, and backdoor curveball. That's a pitch I can get in the air. Knowing it starts high, it's going to end kind of middle-ish of the zone. It was a ball, but I took my chance just to raise it. And the next at-bat he went sinker, front hip. Good pitch. Didn't want that," Naylor said.

"Then he went fastball away, and I kind of took it as if he surprised me. And he tried to go back again, but I was waiting for it again, and just tried to hit it the other way. In the third at-bat, I knew that the splitter was the only pitch that he's thrown that I didn't really take a chance at or even look like I was going to take a chance at, so I figured I'd get it again.

"It was a pretty good pitch for him so far during the day. But I figured if it just starts inside, it's going to end middle. And I was just waiting for that whole first at-bat to try to stay back as long as I could on it, and put a good swing on it, and thank God it went out," he said.

It may seem like a long-winded explanation for a play that took just a handful of seconds, but that's who Naylor is. A power hitter, yes. Full of passion and intensity, absolutely. But at his core, the 27-year-old a truly intellectual, cerebral hitter, who uses that intense logical process to create his own results. Naylor broke down his mental outlook on the game of baseball.

"Baseball, in my opinion, is very psychological. It's a big chess game. You've got to think along with the pitcher. You've got to see what he's doing out there the whole game, what he's comfortable with throwing, what areas he's comfortable throwing in, what pitches are working for him that day, what aren't.

"With experience, [you] slowly figure out what he's going to throw to you in a certain at-bat. ... I just try to break down the game in that way, try to teach younger guys that and show [Alek Thomas] some things and try to help him kind of decipher pitches, decipher counts, and break down things in that sense," he continued.

"But I think it just comes with experience and playing, seeing pitchers, knowing, again, where they like to throw it, and if that's not working, where's their plan B going?"

He said he considers himself a student of the game, and tries to model his approach off some of baseball's best cerebral hitters. He cited names like Eric Hosmer, Greg Garcia, Francisco Lindor and even Salvador Perez.

"I think baseball is a chess match. You've got to think four moves ahead of your opponent. In my opinion, you've got to understand your opponent better than yourself. That's how you're going to beat them. I've always tried to be a student of the game and try to learn from players before me and players I've played with who are very good students of the game," Naylor said.

That approach and intense logical process is apparent. It's obvious to manager Torey Lovullo just what a mental asset Naylor is.

"What you guys see is a really good hitter, an engaged player on the field," Lovullo told reporters following Wednesday's game. "What I get to see is a really smart, mature baseball player. I love talking hitting with him."

"I feel like he set up that pitcher. When he hit the home run, he set him up. He hit a couple balls hard the other way, and he knew what was going on," Lovullo said.

There's a reason why Naylor enjoyed an All-Star-worthy season in 2023, and why he's been so valuable at the plate to the D-backs in the early goings of 2025. After a 2-for-4 day on Wednesday, he raised his slash line to .340/.418/.511, with a .929 OPS and 159 wRC+ to go with it.

Naylor has also walked seven times against a mere three strikeouts over his first 55 plate appearances — that's a strikeout rate of 5.5%.

"When you talk about being one step ahead of the curve, [Naylor's] experience leads him there," Lovullo said. "He's a highly, highly intelligent player that challenges himself and his teammates every single day. It's been a joy so far to manage him."

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