Breaking news! A trade

[Captain 97]

I have zero problems with trading Ford. It just seems like he ought to have brought a lot better player back than Ferrar. Seems like it would have been cheaper just to resign Caleb Ferguson. He has been better across the board than Ferrar over the last 3 years. M's must see something that they can fix and turn him into a high leverage arm because he certainly hasn't been one so far in his career.

He throws 98-101 with a slider that produced an OPS of like .400 last year.

It's not about fixing him as it is tweaking and him realizing his potential.

He could be one of the best relievers in baseball with some adaptations.

Its not 1990 any more where a guy throwing 98 is some unicorn. There are literally dozens of guys that throw 98 and still suck. They do seem to be able to get the most out of their relievers so maybe they can tweak him but then again, It seems like they could have found some other below average pitcher to tweak rather than giving up a top 100 prospect for a guy who would have been the 7th best pitcher in their bullpen last year.

[D-train]

By Adam Jude
Seattle Times staff reporter
ORLANDO, Fla. — If you saw the broad strokes of the Mariners’ trade of young catcher Harry Ford and your immediate thought on the return was “Huh? That’s it?” — well, that’s a justifiable reaction.

To the average M’s fan, a prospect of Ford’s pedigree — a former first-round pick consistently ranked among the baseball’s Top 50 talents — probably should have netted more than a little-known relief pitcher like Jose Ferrer from the Washington Nationals.

Spend just a few moments perusing Ferrer’s profile, though, and you’ll discover this realization: This has a chance to be a big win for the Mariners.

Ferrer, with a fastball that touches 100 mph, has all the tools to be Seattle’s next great success story out of the bullpen, a left-handed version of Matt Brash whom the Mariners envision as a seventh- and eighth-inning setup man.

And if any organization deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to bullpen acquisitions, it’s the Mariners.

And the reality is, Ford wasn’t going to have a prominent role with the Mariners anytime soon, if ever. Cal Raleigh just completed perhaps the best season by a catcher in MLB history. Raleigh, 29, is in the prime of his career, he just signed an extension to stay in Seattle long-term and he wants to catch as much as any catcher in baseball.

That made Ford nothing more than a backup catcher for the Mariners. And if there’s an opportunity to trade a backup catcher for a potential closer, that’s a trade any team would make any day.

Ford is entering his age-23 season. He’s a good athlete with an intriguing offensive upside, and the Mariners have lauded his overall makeup at every opportunity since they drafted him in 2021.

He has a chance to be a productive major-league player, and the Nationals will presumably give him something the Mariners couldn’t — a chance to be an everyday catcher.


Industry-wide, though, questions about Ford’s defense began to arise over the past year, and some have wondered whether he will stick behind the plate.

“His athleticism just hasn’t translated behind the plate,” said one National League scout who has evaluated Ford closely.

The success rate for catchers drafted straight out of high school is low, and the Mariners knew that when they drafted Ford. (Dave Valle, a second-round pick in 1978, remains the only catcher the Mariners have drafted out of high school to emerge as a regular major-leaguer in Seattle.)

The fact that the Mariners also had to throw in a minor-league relief pitcher (right-hander Isaac Lyon) in the deal tells you something about how the Nationals view Ford, too. He’s hardly a sure thing.

To be fair, there are no guarantees with Ferrer, either.

Ferrer, entering his age-26 season in 2026, does not have overwhelming surface-level numbers. He posted a 4.36 ERA in 142 appearances for the Nationals, with a below-average 20.3% career strikeout rate.

Look under the hood, though, and Ferrer looks a lot like the other under-the-radar relievers the Mariners have polished in recent years.

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He’s devastating against left-handed hitters — holding them to a .186 batting average and a .521 OPS — and his 64.3% groundball rate in 2025 ranked among the best in the majors.

Ferrer’s sinker averaged 97.7 mph, complemented by an effective changeup. He also has a little-used slider, a pitch the Mariners pitching lab will want to tap into, much as they did with Andrés Muñoz and Brash, among others, in recent years.

The timing of the Mariners’ trade for Ferrer is interesting when juxtaposed against the club’s departure with Gregory Santos, another intriguing reliever with high-end “stuff” they acquired in a winter trade two years ago.


It was just a couple weeks ago that the Mariners cut ties with Santos, with whom they elected not to offer a contract, despite his minimum salary.

The Mariners had high hopes that Santos could be the sort of high-leverage reliever they could combine with Muñoz and Brash to form a dangerous back end of the ‘pen.

The Santos experiment was a failure. And yet, for every Santos-type, the Mariners can point to four or five other success stories — Paul Sewald, Erik Swanson, Justin Topa and, now, Muñoz, Brash, Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo — that have defined Seattle’s bullpen the past five years.

One of the Mariners’ goals this offseason was to create greater depth in the bullpen and to ease the burden on Muñoz, Brash and Speier, especially, late in games. Ferrer accomplishes that, and he has the potential to be the Mariners’ next diamond in the rough.

[Seattle or Bust]

I have zero problems with trading Ford. It just seems like he ought to have brought a lot better player back than Ferrar. Seems like it would have been cheaper just to resign Caleb Ferguson. He has been better across the board than Ferrar over the last 3 years. M's must see something that they can fix and turn him into a high leverage arm because he certainly hasn't been one so far in his career.

He throws 98-101 with a slider that produced an OPS of like .400 last year.

It's not about fixing him as it is tweaking and him realizing his potential.

He could be one of the best relievers in baseball with some adaptations.

Its not 1990 any more where a guy throwing 98 is some unicorn. There are literally dozens of guys that throw 98 and still suck. They do seem to be able to get the most out of their relievers so maybe they can tweak him but then again, It seems like they could have found some other below average pitcher to tweak rather than giving up a top 100 prospect for a guy who would have been the 7th best pitcher in their bullpen last year.

How many left handed relievers are capable of throwing 100 mph?

There are 3 in all of baseball. Chapman, Morejon, Ferrer.

Chapman and Morejon are 2 of the most dominant relievers in baseball.

Please do not reduce an argument to something this silly. You have clearly done very little research or look into what he's about.

Here's Morejon btw...

[Michael K.]

Now the Mariners weirdos on Twitter are crying, "WHO IS GOING TO BE OUR BACKUP CATCHER!????"

Idk... someone with a pulse?

Who gives a fuck.

Garver’s looking for a job. Hopefully he’s not on Jerry’s radar…

Was gonna say, weren't we six or seven outs from the World Series with Mitch Fucking Garver as our backup Catcher?

Someone posted this, and I realize it's a highlight reel, but shit....weren't we lamenting all Post Season the fact that we didn't have anyone in our pen to get big lefties out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nylRH1Z-Q

The bullpen got stronger, and we lost a backup Catcher in the process. Isn't this what we have asked them to do for years? Stop holding on to these prospects that might be good, and make the team now better? When was Ford going to play every day? Seriously, if Ford wasn't a prospect here, would we be talking about how great it would be bring him in as our DH and backup Catcher? This is a case of falling in love with our own, and something this organization has done way too much of for way too long. In years past we'd have talked about how he was too valuable to move, and he'd be blocked by Cal for the next five years and end up being traded for a bucket of balls and two bats.

[Hy Feiber]

First round pics with Jack Z were horrific.

[Michael K.]

Meanwhile, Ford’s star has dimmed in the last year or two. Even in February, when I ranked him as the No. 79 prospect in baseball, I pointed out that the odds of him sticking at catcher were declining, and he still hasn’t shown all that much in-game power. The same is true now, and then some. Still, he gets on base at a very high clip, with a .408 OBP in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League last year, bolstered by a 16 percent walk rate, without being passive.

Ford doesn’t square the ball up consistently enough for real power, making a lot of medium contact in Triple A but not enough hard contact to see 20 homers, and he continued to pop the ball up too often. The Mariners tried him briefly in the outfield in 2024 but only gave him eight games in left before giving up on the experiment, which wasn’t showing much promise.

Just screams DH on a playoff team, right?

[Captain 97]

He throws 98-101 with a slider that produced an OPS of like .400 last year.

It's not about fixing him as it is tweaking and him realizing his potential.

He could be one of the best relievers in baseball with some adaptations.

Its not 1990 any more where a guy throwing 98 is some unicorn. There are literally dozens of guys that throw 98 and still suck. They do seem to be able to get the most out of their relievers so maybe they can tweak him but then again, It seems like they could have found some other below average pitcher to tweak rather than giving up a top 100 prospect for a guy who would have been the 7th best pitcher in their bullpen last year.

How many left handed relievers are capable of throwing 100 mph?

There are 3 in all of baseball. Chapman, Morejon, Ferrer.

Chapman and Morejon are 2 of the most dominant relievers in baseball.

Please do not reduce an argument to something this silly. You have clearly done very little research or look into what he's about.

I watched about half of his 2025 Strikeout video before I got bored. Didn't see him hit 100 once.

On the other hand....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroqClve4zs&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ura2Ilz--a0

But I guess you've done all the "research" So I just shouldn't comment.

[Michael K.]

I watched about half of his 2025 Strikeout video before I got bored. Didn't see him hit 100 once.

On the other hand....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroqClve4zs&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ura2Ilz--a0

But I guess you've done all the "research" So I just shouldn't comment.

The one I reposted shows him hitting 100. Also getting guys to chase out of the zone on balls that are moving like crazy. Again, do you see Harry Ford as the guy getting us over the hump, or a high leverage lefty reliever? What makes this team now better? We act as though all we need is a highly regarded Farm System and they are all just going to show up at the Major League level and dominate and we will be good forever. Or every player we get in return in a trade is going to be an All Star.

I'd trade three Harry Fords for a WS ring! That window aint going to stay open forever either.

[Seattle or Bust]

Its not 1990 any more where a guy throwing 98 is some unicorn. There are literally dozens of guys that throw 98 and still suck. They do seem to be able to get the most out of their relievers so maybe they can tweak him but then again, It seems like they could have found some other below average pitcher to tweak rather than giving up a top 100 prospect for a guy who would have been the 7th best pitcher in their bullpen last year.

How many left handed relievers are capable of throwing 100 mph?

There are 3 in all of baseball. Chapman, Morejon, Ferrer.

Chapman and Morejon are 2 of the most dominant relievers in baseball.

Please do not reduce an argument to something this silly. You have clearly done very little research or look into what he's about.

I watched about half of his 2025 Strikeout video before I got bored. Didn't see him hit 100 once.

On the other hand....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroqClve4zs&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ura2Ilz--a0

But I guess you've done all the "research" So I just shouldn't comment.

You compared Ferrer to Ferguson in a post. Basically just ignoring any and all context.

What else am I supposed to do?

This is like saying a team shouldn't have traded for Mackenzie Gore b/c they already have Marco Gonzales.

[Captain 97]

How many left handed relievers are capable of throwing 100 mph?

There are 3 in all of baseball. Chapman, Morejon, Ferrer.

Chapman and Morejon are 2 of the most dominant relievers in baseball.

Please do not reduce an argument to something this silly. You have clearly done very little research or look into what he's about.

I watched about half of his 2025 Strikeout video before I got bored. Didn't see him hit 100 once.

On the other hand....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroqClve4zs&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ura2Ilz--a0

But I guess you've done all the "research" So I just shouldn't comment.

You compared Ferrer to Ferguson in a post. Basically just ignoring any and all context.

What else am I supposed to do?

This is like saying a team shouldn't have traded for Mackenzie Gore b/c they already have Marco Gonzales.

You're right the only possible response was to post false info while also claiming that you are the one that "does research".
You want to argue your point, fine but you lose all respect when you talk down to people while simultaneously claiming things that obviously aren't true.