At first, Josh Naylor was shocked – emotional, even a little upset. For a moment, he wondered if an off-field incident involving a knife convinced the Marlins to ship their top 2015 draft pick out of the organization. Then the 19-year-old first baseman remembered what he’d heard from the moment he emerged as one of Canada’s most promising prospects ever: Baseball was a business.

The trade to San Diego was Naylor’s first sobering lesson.

“It was just shocking,” Naylor said outside the home clubhouse at high Single-A Lake Elsinore, the jumping off point for his stay in the Padres organization. “I felt like I let the team down, like I wasn’t good enough to be a Marlin. That’s how I thought of why they gave me away. The bigger picture was that I was traded for two starting pitchers. That’s something I should be proud of.”

Of course, the deal was much bigger than that.

For Andrew Cashner , Colin Rea and relief prospect Tayron Guerrero, the Padres received two major league arms (Jarred Cosart and rehabbing Carter Capps), a minor league reliever Luis Castillo and a left-handed bat selected 12th overall a little more than a year ago. While Rea’s injury prompted the Padres to return Castillo to Miami in exchange for the return of Rea, trading two months of Cashner has stocked the big league team with a hard-throwing reliever they’ll control through 2019, an intriguing rotation arm they’ll have even longer and an asset that already ranks among the best in a system has undergone a furious makeover in General Manager A.J. Preller’s two years on the job.

FARM SYSTEM MAKEOVER RK Prospect How acquired 1 RHP Anderson Espinoza Drew Pomeranz trade 2 OF Manuel Margot Craig Kimbrel trade 3 OF Hunter Renfroe 2013 draft 4 1B Josh Naylor Andrew Cashner trade 5 RHP Cal Quantrill 2016 draft 6 LHP Adrian Morejon 2016 international free agent 7 SS Javier Guerra Craig Kimbrel trade 8 RHP Chris Paddack Fernando Rodney trade 9 LHP Eric Lauer 2016 draft 10 OF Michael Gettys 2014 draft 11 INF Luis Urias 2013 international free agent 12 SS Jose Rondon Huston Street trade 13 OF Jorge Ona 2016 international free agent 14 OF Buddy Reed 2016 draft 15 RHP Jacob Nix 2015 draft 16 RHP Enyel De Los Santos Joaquin Benoit trade 17 LHP Logan Allen Craig Kimbrel trade 18 RHP Dinelson Lamet 2014 international free agent 19 RHP Hansel Rodriguez Melvin Upton trade 20 2B Carlos Asuaje Craig Kimbrel trade 21 SS Luis Almanzar 2016 international free agent 22 SS Gabriel Arias 2016 international free agent 23 SS Ruddy Giron 2013 international free agent 24 OF Nick Torres 2014 draft 25 C Austin Allen 2015 draft 26 RHP Reggie Lawson 2016 draft 27 RHP Austin Smith 2015 draft 28 RHP Mason Thompson 2016 draft 29 OF Jeisson Rosario 2016 international free agent 30 RHP Phil Maton 2015 draft

It’s easy to see why.

Naylor ranked No. 2 in Miami’s system after the Marlins made him the highest-drafted hitter out of Canada, he hit .327 to begin his pro career in rookie ball last year and then hit his way into this year’s All-Star Futures Game with nine homers in his first 74 games in at low Single-A Greensboro.

The knocks?

His defense has been suspect at times, his hefty, 6-foot, 225-pound frame has been likened to Pablo Sandoval’s and Prince Fielder’s and an off-field incident with a knife earlier this summer sent a Marlins teammate to the minor league disabled list.

The circumstances surrounding Naylor slicing open outfielder Stone Garret’s right thumb may have even driven Naylor’s stock down, the Marlins deeming the incident a prank that “went a little too far” even as Garrett’s agent released a statement declaring that the injury “was not the result of horseplay of any kind.”

“It was just a mistake,” Naylor said while declining to elaborate on the details of the incident. “I wasn’t thinking at the time. It’s something I feel terrible about even today. I’ve apologized a ton to him. He knows how bad I feel.”

The Padres, for their part, have done enough homework to believe that Naylor’s extensive track record on Canada’s amateur scene overshadows the blip on the radar. That career started with parlaying a spot on an Ontario travel squad (little brother Noah might become an even better prospect, Naylor says) into an opportunity with Team Canada’s 18-and-under team.

Along the way, Naylor has collected hundreds of at-bats against professionals during extended spring training and fall league exhibition trips to Florida as well as dozens passport stamps from playing in tournaments from Mexico to the Dominican to Cuba to Italy, Taiwan and Japan. The experiences have ranged from singling off R.A Dickey’s knuckler and turning on Lucas Giolito’s heater to homering into the upper deck of Minnesota’s Target Field during a junior derby to swatting five homers in 12 games during a trip to the Dominican just ahead of the 2015 draft.

All before reaching adulthood, too.

“The most amazing thing,” said Greg Hamilton, Baseball Canada’s head coach and director of national teams, “is that he's showed as a high school player playing against international competition from the time he was 15, 16, 17 years old that when he got into hitters counts, he would put Major League middle-of-the-order swings on professional fastballs.

“He would at 15 years old take swings that no other 15 year old had any business doing with a bat.”

That background led the Padres to aggressively place Naylor in the Cal League, where 19-year-old Luis Urias was recently named the MVP after starting the season four months ago as its youngest player.

Naylor is 19 days younger than Urias and more than a year than the college first baseman (Brad Zunica) sitting at low Single-A Fort Wayne.

Yet Naylor is hitting .261 with three homers and 21 RBIs through his first 27 games and has shaved his strikeout rate from 16.7 percent in low-A to 14.2 percent to start an aggressive Cal League assignment.

“There’s a lot of power there and a lot of very good ability,” Lake Elsinore hitting coach Xavier Nady said. “He’s very hitterish when it comes to spoiling pitches. He’ll fight it off, fight it off and then send a missile to center field. You can’t teach that. That’s just having an understanding of what you need to do to keep your at-bat alive. He’ll let it eat more than others, but he hits the ball extremely hard and is pretty consistent at it.”

Added Preller: “This is a guy who’s had a lot of exposure, who’s been on the international scene and the amateur scene for a long time. … He’s got quick hands. He’s always had a good feel for hitting a big raw power. Everywhere we’ve seen him, wherever the pitcher is pitching him, he hits the ball wherever it’s pitched.”

The Padres will see even more of him this fall in instructional league. There, the organization will begin to take a longer look at suspect defense that has slapped a bat-first label on his back, his larger frame raising as many questions across the game as his 18 errors this season.

Naylor has heard the whispers, too.

Can’t field his position. Can’t make the necessary throws. Can’t DH in the National League .

He can’t wait to prove them wrong.

“Success is the best revenge, my mom always tells me,” Naylor said.

jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com; on Twitter: @sdutSanders