No offense to Josh Naylor, but if someone was going to make stolen base history in Major League Baseball, you wouldn’t think it would be the Seattle Mariners‘ first baseman.
He doesn’t exactly look like a speedy guy, and in fact, he’s not speedy. MLB’s official speed-tracking data confirms that Naylor is slow.
And yet on Saturday, Naylor made steals history.
Josh Naylor Stolen Base History
Naylor reached the 30-steals mark by swiping a bag on Saturday. It’s his second consecutive season with at least 30 steals.
He’s the first primary first baseman to do this in back-to-back seasons since the legendary George Sisler, who did it from 1920 through 1922, according to MLB Network’s Sarah Langs:
Josh Naylor is the first primary first baseman with 30+ SB in consecutive seasons since 1920-22 George Sisler
(Min 50% games at 1B)
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 27, 2026
There have actually been some really good base stealers who played first base in recent times.
Jeff Bagwell could swipe a bag in his prime. So could Paul Goldschmidt.
But they never did this. It’s Naylor somehow matching a feat that seemed potentially unlikely to ever be matched.
And it’s actually kind of wild that it was Naylor.
Entering the 2025 season, his career-high for steals in a season was 10.
He then swiped 11 bags in 93 games to begin 2025 with the Diamondbacks. Once he was traded to the Mariners, he stole 19 bases in 54 games — and wasn’t caught once.
He became a master of schooling the pitcher’s timing and taking bases with relative ease.
Teams are a bit more onto Naylor this season. He’s been caught nine times.
But the general rule of thumb is that if you’re safe at least 75% of the time, it’s a good strategic play — and Naylor is 30-for-39, just above that percentage.
How Slow Is Josh Naylor?
That’s the thing, though: Naylor is legitimately slow.
This isn’t the case of a guy who looks like he’d be slow actually possessing some wheels.
Sure, he can turn on the afterburners just a bit, but the data says he’s one of MLB’s slowest players.
According to Statcast data, Naylor is in the 1st-percentile of sprint speed across the sport. That means that 99% of players are faster than him.
He averages 24.3 feet per second on his sprints.
He’s actually regarded as a poor baserunner overall by the metrics, with just a 9th-percentile Baserunning Run Value (meaning how much he contributes to his teams on the basepaths), marked as a negative-3 for Naylor.
But somehow, when you put that all together, he’s a good base stealer.
It’s one of the most improbable feats in recent baseball history, but somehow Naylor has achieved it.
Mariners’ Josh Naylor Makes Improbable 104-Year Baseball History