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His 2023 and 2024 were both .250 clunkers, but roughly .750 and .800 OPS. Maybe he has some pop?
He's an oh-fer every night. Maybe last season was a fluke, and he belongs at Harrisburg, learning to hit?
Defense
Yes, Defense is the big concern for him. That's why he's in the minors still. I don't think going down to AA to "learn to hit" is needed after he had a good seasons in AA and AAA the past 2 years with around a .400 OBP and good slugging. There's a difference between a cold start and not having the skills.
Ford was a toolsy high school catching prospect with rare speed and power, but a lot of work to do on defense if he was going to stay back there, with center field a viable alternative were he to stagnate. The Mariners picked him 12th overall in 2021, gave the Georgia Tech commit a little more than $4 million to sign, and overhauled Ford’s crouching style to something that more closely resembled a big league catcher’s. He was shuttled through the minors pretty aggressively, hitting above the league average the entire time, and reached the bigs as a 22-year-old in 2025. The Mariners dealt Ford to the Nationals during the offseason as part of their trade for Jose A. Ferrer, a potentially elite lefty reliever, and Ford began the 2026 season at Triple-A Rochester, where he’s seemingly in line to eventually be called up and exhaust his rookie eligibility.Ford’s career has progressed in some surprising ways. He had a huge arm as a high school prospect but has struggled some with throwing accuracy as a pro, and while he can sometimes still pop sub-1.8 seconds, he tends to more consistently live in the 1.95 range with mixed accuracy. Both his throwing and framing are sufficiently good for him to be a big league catcher, but he really shines as a ball-blocker, both because he has good hands on balls in the dirt and because he has great lateral agility and toughness.The other surprising aspect of Ford’s career to this point has been how consistently he’s made an average or better rate of contact. His hands are pretty noisy in the box and he can often be late on fastballs because of this, but he has still managed to produce strikeout rates in the 19-23% range as a pro, and he posted a 77% contact rate throughout 2025. While the hitch in Ford’s swing should give one pause about his ability to continue doing this, his power and plate discipline are still rather good for a catcher and give him other offensive elements to take the pressure off his hit tool. He has power to both gaps, and runs well enough to turn some singles into doubles and steal a dozen bases or so throughout the year. If you trust your eyes, then there’s still some hit tool-related bust risk to Ford, but his performance track record allays them enough for him to be valued like a soon-to-be primary catcher.
Bigger disappointment than Crews this year?
One Nationals official called Ford one of the hardest working players in the organization. He pores over every report until his head hits the pillow, and wants to replicate the demands of a big-league schedule in Rochester. But it has been a lot to handle.His framing has been fine, if not yet elite. He isn’t chasing much, but he is doing so more than he did last year. President of baseball operations Paul Toboni said Ford can get caught trying to be so perfect, with such a focus on putting the ball in play, that he could benefit from letting loose and swinging harder at times.With some struggles against velocity, he has a .510 OPS in Rochester.“I think if you ask Harry, he’s like, ‘Gosh, I wish I was hitting better than I have been,’” Toboni said. “But I think a lot of the underlying stuff is pretty darn good. He’s got a tremendous eye, he controls the zone great. I think the big thing for Harry here in the coming weeks is, when you get up there and you get your pitch, let it loose with intent and try to hit a ball hard.”
Maybe Ford should be allowed to master Harrisburg before learning AAA?
He had an .858 OPS across 458 PAs in AAA last season.
Spokane has an elevation of 1900+ ftRochester has an elevation of 700+ ftLet’s wait until spring turns into summer and the entire east coast turns into a hitter’s paradise.
A bit passive. .394 obp this month over 33 PA with 8 BBs and 10 Ks. That's 18 out of 33 PAs ending without contact. 1 Hr, 4 for 14 on balls in play. His game is plate discipline, but that may be a bit passive
He is heating up with the bat
Eyes have turned away from Ford and towards other prospects on the farm, especially at the lower levels, but while fans have watched the offensive outbursts of Eli Willits and Devin Fitz-Gerald, Ford has quietly begun to find himself again offensively in May. Through 9 games in the month, Ford has a .241 batting average, 0.90 BB/K ratio, 1 home run, and .367 wOBA, much improved from his .198 average, 0.38 BB/K ratio, 0 home runs, and .247 wOBA in April.The biggest difference for Ford in May has been the return of his bat-to-ball skills, as after an unusual April where Ford posted a 31.6% whiff rate and 78.5% Zone-Contact rate, he has cut the whiff rate down to 23% and increased the Zone-Contact rate to 88.6% in May. Ford has been making more contact this month while also lowering his chase rate, going from the 73rd to the 90th percentile in chase rate. The hit tool is the driving force of Ford’s offensive profile, and after seemingly losing it during his first month as a Nat, he’s gotten back to his 2025 levels.The area where Ford is still looking to find himself again is in the power department, as although he got his first home run of the year the other day, his average exit velocity of 85.1 MPH is well below his 88.8 MPH mark in 2025. The good news is that, while the exit velocities aren’t there yet, Ford is doing everything right to maximize his power output when they are, as his 82nd percentile barrel rate and 66th percentile pulled flyball rate in May are both above average and allow someone with average raw power like Ford to still hit 15-20 home runs a season.
