Tigers' Kevin McGonigle confused by Mariners' Josh Naylor in near-disaster
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Tigers' Kevin McGonigle confused by Mariners' Josh Naylor in near-disaster originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Just a night earlier, Max Muncy and Ildemaro Vargas had a huge collision at first base that caused the NL West rivals to exit their game with injury.
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So on Friday, it was scary to see Seattle Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor on a collision course with Detroit Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle.
This time, they barely avoided disaster.
And considering the size difference between Naylor and McGonigle, it could've been ugly.
One day after Max Muncy and Ildemaro Vargas collided at 1B in Arizona, Kevin McGonigle and Josh Naylor had a similar run-in. Thankfully this one wasn't head-on, and both players seem OK. pic.twitter.com/Olt5stvV64
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) June 6, 2026
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The weird part of this play is that it seems Naylor had a better option.
Why didn't he flip it to pitcher Bryan Woo?
That's what McGonigle was wondering when he spoke with reporters after the game.
"I was just more confused why he took it to the bag himself," McGonigle told reporters. "The whole way, I thought he was going to flip it to Woo. Woo was there early, so I just expected that."
There are a lot of possibilities here, not all of them bad.
Naylor may have just done some miscalculations in his head. There are always a few different moving parts on plays like this.
It is probably fair that Naylor doesn't mind being a bit in a bang-bang situation just because he knows that with his bulk, he's probably not going to come out worse for wear.
At the end of the day, it's just good that no one got hurt here. And maybe we'll see a few more first basemen flipping to pitchers rather than taking it themselves in the days to come as the rest of the league notices these different plays.