The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians’ acquisition of catcher Patrick Bailey in early May signaled the end of Bo Naylor’s tenure with the team, a stint that dates to June 2018, when the club snagged him with the 29th pick in the draft.The tenure officially ended Saturday, when the Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers completed a four-player swap that landed Naylor and pitcher Codi Heuer with Milwaukee and reliever Craig Yoho and outfielder Blake Perkins with Cleveland.There was no path back to the big leagues for Naylor once he was demoted to the minors three months ago. Cleveland had Bailey and Austin Hedges (and even David Fry) in the majors. At Triple A, the Guardians had well-regarded prospect Cooper Ingle and Kody Huff, who is beloved in the organization and enjoying a breakout season at the plate.The Guardians initially sent Naylor to their Arizona complex to make tweaks to his swing, and then he spent the last couple of months at Triple-A Columbus, essentially waiting in purgatory until a trade materialized.The Brewers were among the teams interested from the get-go. From the Guardians’ standpoint, it made sense to wait until the market became clearer and teams grew antsy as the deadline approached.Perkins will head to Columbus. He’s depth at all three outfield spots. He’ll turn 30 in September. He owns a career .636 OPS in the majors. He’s a switch hitter. Think of him as another Petey Halpin or Stuart Fairchild.Yoho is the part of the package who had the Guardians intrigued. He’s a reliever whose changeup has stymied hitters and whose 94 mph fastball looks a lot zippier because he has elite extension, so he’s releasing it much closer to the plate than the average pitcher. The Guardians will have control over him through the 2031 season. That might be two collective bargaining agreements from now.To salvage anything for Naylor at this point is a plus, though it comes with the caveat — really, the headline — that a first-round pick and top prospect never scratched that sort of potential with the Guardians. Naylor was a sunk cost, unfortunately. That he never figured it out in Cleveland is an indictment of the organization’s hitting development. Sometimes, that happens. Baseball is difficult to forecast and even more difficult to play. But as recently as this spring, the Guardians held high hopes for Naylor.In mid-February, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said this about Naylor: “I think Bo’s just scratching the surface of the hitter he can be. … I think he’s putting himself into a position to have a big, breakout year.”