Guardians reinstate Josh Naylor from injured list
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CLEVELAND -- Josh Naylor’s back. And not a moment too soon.
After spending a little more than a month on the shelf with a right oblique strain Naylor was activated off the injured list ahead of the Guardians’ Sunday afternoon tilt against the Rays. It's a move that the Guardians hope will help them narrow the gap against the Twins in the AL Central.
Outfielder Oscar Gonzalez was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Cleveland entered Sunday’s series-finale against the Rays five games behind the Twins in the American League Central. While Cleveland is riding a four-game winning streak, it hasn’t been able to gain a game on the Twins -- thanks to Minnesota taking the first two games of its series against the Rangers.
Naylor began to feel discomfort in his side on July 31, and was scratched from Cleveland’s lineup a day later when the pain continued into his batting-practice session. Two days later, he underwent an MRI that revealed the strain. His four-week stint on the injured list lined up with the initial forecast that he’d miss between three to six weeks.
Naylor appeared in three games with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks, going 4-for-9 with two RBIs.
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Naylor will look to help jumpstart an offense that has struggled to produce without him in the lineup. The Guardians had a team batting average of .234 in the 30 games that Naylor missed (the eighth-worst mark in baseball), with the least number of home runs (22) and tied for the second-to-last RBIs (104) in that span.
José Ramírez’s production has taken a hit without the presence of Naylor in the lineup, as the All-Star hit .207 in August and was recently moved up to the two-hole in Cleveland’s lineup.
Naylor’s reinstatement finishes off a week that saw a mini-remake of the Guardians roster, thanks to the addition of former Angels pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Matt Moore via waivers on Thursday. López and Moore both made their Guardians debuts on Saturday, combining for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
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“We got some help to try and remain relevant in [the division race] since we have an uphill fight, as we know,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said Friday. “[The front office] is trying to give us a better chance, which I think everyone appreciates.”
Last week the Guardians managed to grab two out of three games against the Twins without Naylor, which helped encourage Cleveland’s front office to pull the trigger on grabbing Moore, Giolito and López on waivers. Now, that quartet will look to help Cleveland find success against the Twins in a huge three-game series.