Mariners did Harry Ford a huge favor by getting him far away from Seattle

The Seattle Mariners pulled the rug out from under their fanbase on Saturday, trading top prospect Harry Ford to the Washington Nationals in a deal that brought back an anonymous left-handed reliever. The trade actually makes sense, but it doesn't seem to be going over well.

Some commenters on social media seem enthusiastic about newcomer lefty Jose A. Ferrer, but there's also a mix of befuddlement and outright outrage. It makes for a telling window into how highly Mariners fans think of Ford, who occupies the No. 42 spot in MLB Pipeline's top 100 prospects.

Naysayers are entitled to their opinion, and there is something about the Ford trade that just seems, well, off. Though his name appeared in a ton of trade rumors over the last year, it was only a couple weeks ago that the Mariners seemed to commit to him as Cal Raleigh's backup for the 2026 season.

But this, of course, gets at who the big winner of this trade really is: Ford himself.

Mariners do Harry Ford a big favor by getting him far away from Seattle

Though the Mariners' swap of Ford and pitching prospect Isaac Lyon for Ferrer looks like a major overpay on paper, a more nuanced picture takes shape when you consider the reality of Ford's situation in Seattle.

Even a backup job with the big club looked like a purgatory for Ford, as it left him caught between everyday action at Triple-A Tacoma and a starting role over Raleigh. He's come too far to be relegated to the former, whereas there's not another catcher in MLB who would start over Raleigh. He's pretty good, lest anyone forget.

Would it have been nice for the Mariners to have Ford as their backup backstop even though he was overqualified for the role? Well, yes. But it would have meant blocking his career from blossoming at exactly the moment when it should be. He's 22 years old and coming off a season with Tacoma in which he got on base at a .408 clip and hit a career-high 16 home runs.

That said, Ford hasn't convinced everyone that he's a finished product. Though he seemed to make real strides with his power and defense this season, JJ Cooper of Baseball America put it bluntly on X:

Clearly, this is a guy who needs an opportunity to show what he can do. And much more so than the Mariners, the Nationals are positioned to provide him with one. They got only 1.1 rWAR from their catching corps this year. The position's offensive output was especially painful, with its .597 OPS ranking as the worst in the National League.

It looks for now like Ford will enter 2026 as a third catching option after Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams, but the Nationals would not have traded for him if they weren't high on his upside. And given how Ruiz and Adams performed in what was a 96-loss season, it's not like the Nationals have anything to lose by giving Ford his shot.

If Ford goes on to have a great career in Washington, D.C., Mariners fans must remember that it would have been basically impossible for him to do the same in Seattle. The trick will be to not lament what the Mariners lost, but rather appreciate what Ford gained.