New report on Mariners' Harry Ford should hasten prospect's promotion

The Seattle Mariners are sitting on a veritable treasure trove of prospects in 2025, and they've already used it to their advantage. If anything, Ben Williamson has been better than advertised since getting called to The Show last week.

If the Mariners are waiting for an excuse to go back to the proverbial well for another prospect, suffice it to say they now have a whole 'nother reason to put Harry Ford in line for a promotion.

Ranked as the Mariners' No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline, Ford landed on a list of Triple-A Statcast standouts published by Sam Dykstra of MLB.com on Tuesday. In focus is the 22-year-old catcher's eye for the strike zone, which he has shown by chasing only 10.2 percent of pitches outside the zone.

"That’s the lowest chase rate for any of the 241 Triple-A hitters who have seen 100 pitches outside the zone so far in 2025," observes Dykstra.

Harry Ford's discipline and speed would allow him to fit right in with the Mariners

In the interest of full disclosure, we didn't need to hear about Ford's extraordinary zone discipline to want him on the Mariners. We've been banging that drum for a couple weeks.

All encouraging developments are welcome, however, and the benefit of Ford's eye for the zone is hiding in plain sight. He has a .424 OBP through 14 games with Triple-A Tacoma, good for 10th among Pacific Coast League hitters with at least 60 plate appearances.

After running a 74-to-115 walk-to-strikeout ratio with Double-A Arkansas in 2024, Ford has 15 walks against 12 strikeouts so far in 2025. And while he has only one extra-base hit, he's actually making solid contact. His average exit velocity is 91.6 mph, compared to 88.8 mph for all of Triple-A.

We can have a debate about precisely when a bat is major league-ready, but surely we can agree that context should matter. And in this case, Ford is looking up at a Mariners roster that is getting very little from key reserves. Namely: Mitch Garver, who has a .558 OPS, and Donovan Solano, who has a .159 OPS.

That the Mariners are having a successful offensive season anyway (they rank fourth in MLB with a 118 wRC+) comes down in part to how much the team's approach has improved from last season. They're fourth with 103 walks, with a substantially better ratio of walks to strikeouts.

Ford would fit right in just in this regard, and he also has the speed to participate in the Mariners' baserunning revolution. Speed typically isn't a tool associated with catchers, but he's seen as a 60-grade runner and he stole 35 bases last season.

Granted, Ford's defense behind the plate is seen as a work in progress and he has yet to see time in the outfield after starting eight games in left field last year. To these extents, he's not quite a square peg for a square hole on the Mariners' roster.

But would the team be worse off if it cut Solano loose — $3.5 million is a lot to eat, but the M's have eaten bigger chunks of change already — and used Garver as their resident right-handed reserve instead? We think not, especially if Ford's presence allowed for more regular reps at designated hitter for Cal Raleigh. The last thing the Mariners need is for their "Big Dumper" to break down.

However the game of roster Tetris would ultimately play out, the basic reality is that Ford has abilities that can help the Mariners. They should want to take advantage of them, and the sooner, the better.