The unwritten rules are not dead. Just ask Josh Naylor.
The Seattle Mariners first baseman got drilled by Tigers pitcher Keider Montero in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game at Comerica Park. The reason was two innings earlier, when Naylor threw his sliding mitt at Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler as he was preparing to slide into home.
The play did not affect the call. Naylor was still tagged out at the plate. But the move read as bush league to a Tigers dugout that has history with Naylor going back to the 2025 American League Division Series, when he was accused of stealing signs against Detroit.
Montero answered with a fastball to the shoulder in the fifth. Naylor smiled at him, which is the kind of moment that makes baseball baseball. The pitcher knew what he was doing. The hitter knew what he was doing. Both sides understood the message. That is how the code is supposed to work.
This was not a malicious beanball. Montero hit him in the shoulder area, not the head, not the back. He sent the message and moved on. The umpires did not eject anyone. Both managers nodded and let it play out. Old school baseball still exists.
Naylor has been a lightning rod his entire career. He plays with an edge that fans either love or hate. There is no middle ground. He showed up to Toronto playoffs years ago and stared down opposing pitchers. He gestures to crowds. He flips bats. Some of that is fun. Some of it crosses lines.
The sliding mitt throw crossed a line. Major League catchers have to deal with enough nonsense at the plate without players chucking equipment at them. The mitt did not actually hit Dingler, but the intent was there. The Tigers do not have to take that, and they did not.
Detroit also had backstory working in their favor. Naylor’s 2025 ALDS sign-stealing allegations were never fully resolved, but the Tigers locker room never let it go. When Naylor pulled the mitt stunt, the dugout had been waiting for an excuse.
The Friday game before this had its own Naylor weirdness. He took a routine ground ball to first base himself instead of flipping it to the pitcher covering the bag. The play almost ended in a collision with Kevin McGonigle that nobody needed. That is the kind of thing teammates and opponents both notice, even if it does not show up on the highlight reel.
The bigger issue for Naylor is that this kind of stuff happens every couple of weeks. He picks fights. He stirs things up. He makes the game about him. Some of his teammates love it because it brings energy. Other players around the league have made it clear they do not.
The Mariners won the game 4-0, so Naylor probably feels like he had the last laugh. He went 1 for 4. He scored a run. His team got a road victory at one of the harder places to play in the American League. From his perspective, the bruise on his shoulder is worth it.
The Tigers feel differently. They got the message across. They protected their catcher. They stood up for their teammate. And in a season where Detroit’s pitching staff has been decimated by injuries, that kind of unity matters.
Naylor will get hit again. He always does. That is the price of being the player he is, and he seems perfectly fine paying it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
