When the Washington Nationals acquired former Seattle Mariners prospect Harry Ford, they did so for protection and the belief that Ford, would blossom into a stud at catcher. Despite their current MLB catcher rotation of Keibert Ruiz and Drew Millas, team brass saw fit to trade for the supremely talented Ford in exchange for pitching prospect Jose A. Ferrer.

One of the main reasons for the move was the health concerns of Ruiz ho battled concussions in the second half of last season. With those turn of events Nationals’ team brass decided they needed to pull the trigger on acquiring Ford to eventually tandem with Ruiz to form what they hope will be one of the best catcher duos in all of MLB.

MLBbro Catcher Harry Ford Jr. Traded By Seattle Mariners To Washington Nats

 

Nationals Option Ford To Triple-A Rochester 

The plan with Ford has always been to get him as many reps as possible in order to prepare for the everyday rigors of the majors. In order to do that Nationals leadership optioned him to Triple-A Rochester to begin the season.

“I told Harry today when we sent him down, he’s going to be a huge part of our future,” manager Blake Butera said. “Him going to Triple-A right now has nothing to do with, like, all right, we don’t think highly of him anymore. No, that’s not it. And it’s not anything he did or didn’t do, right or wrong.”

Management Stresses Patience

In an effort to ease Ford along, the Nationals have made it clear that there is no rush for him to be called up, because the focus right now is reps and playing every day to get comfortable with pitching staff.

“As a catcher, there’s a lot that goes into that position that might not be on the stat sheet,” Butera said. “It’s calling a game, it’s handling a pitching staff. It’s obviously the offensive side of the game, the throwing, all of it. …

“We told him, ‘There is no timetable of, like, you have to stay down there for X amount of days. No, you go down there and you dominate and you force our hand, we will make sure you’re up there with us’.”

“We’re going to be really close with our Triple-A staff with Harry,” Butera said. 

 

Ford Slowly Figuring Things Out

When the Nationals optioned Ford to Rochester the move was made to gain some comfort ability between he and the Triple A hurlers who get called up together or around the same time. The aforementioned Butera who’s in his first season as the club’s manager wants to see the continuity between Ford and the pitchers develop daily so that he and other club decision makers are comfortable with the promoting Ford to the majors.

“Understanding how the pitchers feel throwing to him, that’s a big part of the catching game, obviously,” Butera continued. “Making sure that our pitchers in Triple-A are having success with Harry catching. Then also understanding that the blocking’s good, the receiving numbers are good, and then you see the offense, hopefully he continues to do what he’s done in his career so far. Those are the big-ticket items.”

Ford struggles at the plate to begin the season have well-documented with an underwhelming slash line of .189/.299/.230 and .529 OPS

Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni spoke to reporters on Ford’s struggles at the plate as a hitter thus far, and he still has the utmost faith that Ford will figure it all out.

 “I think if you ask Harry, he’s like, ‘Gosh, I wish I was hitting better than I have been,’” said Toboni. “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 and hit a ball hard. Not that he’s not right now — but I think Harry at times can get caught trying to be so perfect and put the ball in play that, hey, let it loose and do some damage and trust your eye that you’ll be swinging at good pitches and having success.”