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After a long, painfully slow start to the season, the Guardians’ offense has shown signs of life over the last few days. And at the center of this resurgence has been Josh Naylor.  

With two homers under his belt in the last two games, let’s look at three key reasons to believe that he’s finally turning a corner after hitting just .191 with a .548 OPS in his first 33 games:   

He hit a lefty

Maybe the bar is low here, but we’ve got to start somewhere.  

Naylor has been notorious for his struggles against southpaws. Last year, he hit .173 with a .512 OPS against lefties but owned a .283 average and .856 OPS against righties. It took him until April 23 to pick up his first hit off a lefty this season. But in the series opener against the Angels on Friday, Naylor launched a 442-foot blast off of left-hander Matt Moore in the bottom of the eighth inning. It marked just the fourth homer off of a left-handed pitcher in his career.  

“He took a nice swing,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said Friday night. “And I don’t think he has to swing hard to hit a ball like that. I think he stayed in his swing and didn’t come up and off. The ball will go a long way.”  

The Guardians have been adamant that Naylor can be more than a platoon player. And if he can continue to hit lefties, he’ll certainly earn more everyday at-bats.    

Underlying metrics are positive

Naylor just cleared the Mendoza Line (.205) after a two-hit performance on Saturday, but his underlying stats indicate that he’s run into some bad luck. His expected batting average sits at .279 based on the contact he’s made, and his expected slugging percentage is .500 versus his current .361 slugging percentage.

The other main takeaway is he’s hitting the ball harder than he has in the past. His hard-hit rate is 46% compared to the league average, which is 39.3%. Friday’s homer had an exit velocity of 110.5 mph, which was tied for his second hardest-hit homer of his career. On Saturday, the three balls he put in play were 105.6 mph, 102.2 mph and 95 mph.

Maybe he hasn’t seen all the results just yet, but these numbers tell us he should be rewarded more in the future, assuming he keeps making this type of contact.

He’s delivering in the clutch

This is the most important part.

The Guardians have desperately needed offense, especially timely hitting. On both Friday and Saturday, Naylor not only launched home runs, but he did so in the most critical parts of the games, giving his team the lead in the eighth inning both nights. He has seven go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning or later since 2021, which is the most among all MLB hitters.

If the Guardians are going to be successful this year, they’ll need this timely hitting from Naylor once again. Last year, he was reliable in clutch situations, owning a .288 average and 1.036 OPS with two outs and runners in scoring position and a .329 average and 1.056 OPS in late-and-close situations (seventh inning or later with his team tied, ahead by one or the tying run at least on deck).

If this side of Naylor is on the verge of being unlocked, the Guardians' offensive woes may shift into the rearview mirror.

“I think he’s like that spark for the team that whenever he’s going, gets that energy going, it just sparks and spreads around the team,” Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “I’m really happy for him to see the results that he has had the last couple of games because I know he works really hard and he’s a really good player, so I’m really happy for him.”