Josh Naylor reignites Tigers' hatred with Kevin McGonigle, Dillon Dingler incidents

Josh Naylor was a Cleveland Guardian for the majority of his career so far, and he certainly plays like it whenever he sees the Tigers.

During last year's ALDS, Naylor's first season with the Mariners, he was an absolute nuisance for Detroit. He was blatantly signaling pitches in Game 4 — we know, we know; it's not illegal, but that doesn't make it less annoying — and his glove, which had never given fans much reason to "ooo" and "ahh," was suddenly Gold Glove-caliber at first base.

This weekend's ALDS rematch in Detroit was sure to be a little fiery. The Tigers arguably have even more to prove now than they did last October. To no one's surprise, Naylor was at the center of anything that resembled controversy.

On Friday, he nearly caused a disaster with Kevin McGonigle, when Naylor took a grounder just past first base by himself and ran straight into McGonigle's path, causing a collision. Everyone was okay, but it didn't sit well with Tigers fans.

He made it worse on Saturday, when he threw his sliding mitt at Dillon Dingler on a slide to home in an apparent attempt to distract him when applying the tag.

Keider Montero made him pay for it during his next at-bat, plunking Naylor with a 96 MPH sinker between the shoulder blades. To his credit, he didn't set off fireworks and took his base without issue.

Josh Naylor's antics in Tigers-Mariners' first meeting since ALDS should light even more fire under Detroit's emerging offense

Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic weighed in on Naylor's antics and made a point that Tigers fans have to acknowledge is valid: "Naylor is maddening to play against. Tigers have to be pissed. The play at first last night was reckless.

"They also need someone just like him."

The Tigers do need a guy with as much fight in him as Naylor, and maybe that's partially why Tigers fans get so revved up by him. We wish we had a guy who could provoke, who could light fires, the way that Naylor does.

Detroit's offense is just starting to wake up, but they were stifled by the Mariners on Saturday. Even if they won't adopt Naylor's maddening style of play, they should at least take something from these first two games.

Bite back. Take things a little personally. Let it fuel a run that will make everyone forget about the entire month of May. In that way, and as much as we hate to admit it, the Tigers could learn a thing or two from Naylor.

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