Guardian-on-Guardian violence (starring Josh Naylor) has Tigers fans ridiculously smug

Tigers fans' annoyance with Josh Naylor was elevated to full-blown hatred when the Mariners visited Detroit in early June. Throughout the three-game series, he nearly caused a disastrous collision with Kevin McGonigle at first, pulled a bush league move and tossed his sliding mitt at Dillon Dingler in a play at the plate, and then pulled a definitely illegal slide into second.

Naylor wore a maybe-intentional-maybe-not fastball between the shoulder blades for it, courtesy of Keider Montero, but the two teams avoided any real fireworks and the Tigers went on to take the series.

Colt Keith said astutely of Naylor, "You like him if you're his teammate, andyou hate him if you're the other team."

Apparently, that also applies to Naylor's former team. The Mariners visited the Guardians over the weekend and in the top of the sixth, Naylor definitely stuck his arm out in front of a Shawn Armstrong pitch on purpose.

Naylor took his base, but not without some chirping between him and longtime teammate Austin Hedges. Naylor was caught on hot mic calling Hedges a "f—ing loser." Hedges, according to Jomboy's lip readers, yelled back, "No one likes you! Literally nobody likes you."

While there's some disagreement over whether or not that's what Hedges actually said (others argue it was "no one asked you"), it doesn't matter much to Tigers fans. We see this as vindication.

Tigers enemy Josh Naylor got yelled at by his own former teammate

Naylor and Hedges' history goes further back than even their time on the Guardians. Naylor debuted as a Padre in 2019, Hedges' fifth year in the major leagues. They were traded from San Diego to Cleveland together (along with Cal Quantrill and a heap of prospects) in exchange for Greg Allen, Matt Waldron, and Mike Clevinger in 2020, and remained teammates on the Guardians until Naylor was traded to the Diamondbacks after the 2024 season.

It's like Keith said: teammates love him, everyone else hates him. Even if you thought Naylor might have the decency to turn off the act for his former team — nope.

Naylor is a provocateur. It's just what he does. Mariners fans love him for it — they were infuriating during the Tigers series and appear to be infuriating re: this latest incident — but it's especially satisfying for Tigers fans when even Cleveland fans, who used to cheer on his antics like no other, are now on the other end of things.

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