Seattle Mariners slugger and Mississauga, Ont. native Josh Naylor has been named captain of Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic, it was announced by Baseball Canada on Monday.
Naylor, 28, won his second Tip O’Neill Award – given by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame to the top Canadian baseball player yearly – in 2025. He also won the award in 2023.
Naylor posted an impressive season split between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Mariners in 2025, logging a career-high 30 stolen bases over 147 games, along with a .295 batting average and 20 home runs.
He ascended to a new level of dominance in the postseason, hitting .340 in 12 games before the Mariners were eliminated by the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series.
In that series against Toronto, Naylor hit three home runs and went 10-for-24 for a .417 batting average across seven games.
After his brilliant abbreviated campaign with the Mariners, Naylor re-signed with the team on a five-year deal worth $92.5 million.
This is Naylor’s second appearance for Canada at the World Baseball Classic, after the slugger went 0-for-2 in two games at the 2017 tournament. He did not participate in 2023 due to an ankle injury.
Canada opens its 2026 WBC tournament on March 7 against Colombia. The Canadian team is seeking to advance out of the first round for the first time ever at the tournament – Canada’s best finish at the WBC was in the first edition of the tournament in 2006, when it finished ninth.
