Mariners' alleged bullpen prize already has fans missing Harry Ford

The moment Jose A. Ferrer started leaking baserunners, Harry Ford was always going to re-enter the chat. That’s bound to happen when a reliever arrives carrying the weight of a fan-favorite prospect trade, especially in a city that had already spent plenty of time imagining what Ford might become in Seattle. Ferrer may not have created that pressure, but he absolutely inherited it.

Ford was one of those guys. He had personality, energy and that easy-to-buy-into intrigue. When Seattle sent Ford to Washington in December for Ferrer, this was never going to be judged like a simple depth swap. 

Ferrer was acquired because the Mariners believed they badly needed another left-handed weapon in the bullpen, and because they believed his elite ground-ball profile and strong strike-throwing metrics could play up in their environment. The price, of course, was Ford, who MLB Pipeline had as the organization’s No. 4 prospect and a top-50 prospect in the sport. When Ferrer opens his Mariners tenure by putting traffic everywhere, it’s going to get loud.

Jose A. Ferrer’s start is making the Mariners’ Harry Ford trade harder to ignore

Through his first few appearances, Ferrer has already created more anxiety than calm. On Sunday, in an extra-inning loss to the Angels, he gave up four hits and two earned runs in one inning while facing seven batters, and that outing pushed his early ERA up to 6.00. 

Now, to be fair, this is where it gets a little more annoying than simple. Ferrer has not been all bad in the underlying sense. Statcast has him with a .207 expected wOBA allowed against an actual .269 wOBA, with zero barrels allowed. Which tells us that some of the damage has been a little noisy, and not every ball put in play against him has been smoked. Sunday’s loss also did not do him any favors, as sloppy plays by both J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena added to the mess around him.

However, this is also kind of the tension with Ferrer’s fit in Seattle. The Mariners clearly saw a guy with a huge arm. That part made sense then, and it still does now. Ferrer averaged 97.7 mph on his fastball last year, ranked in the 95th percentile in walk rate and the 99th percentile in ground-ball rate, and had enough late-game success with Washington to collect 11 saves. On paper, that’s a very appealing relief piece. 

But right now, Ferrer looks like a guy who might be asking for a very clean kind of baseball behind him at a time when Seattle has already had some sloppy moments in the field. Sunday’s loss also came with some shoddy defense behind him, which matters when you are talking about a reliever who depends on balls in play being converted into outs.

That doesn’t automatically make this trade a disaster already. That would be ridiculous. We are talking about a handful of appearances early in the season. It’s also worth noting that Ford himself is off to a slow start in Triple-A with Washington, opening the season with just 3 hits in his first 23 at-bats and a .130 average.

Still, this is how these things work. Fans evaluate the player you gave up, the feeling attached to him, and whether the new guy immediately looks like he belongs. Ferrer has not given anyone that comfort yet. Fair or not, that is why the Harry Ford chatter is not going anywhere.