It’s no secret that Harry Ford’s start to the 2026 season was less than ideal. Acquired this offseason from the Seattle Mariners for Jose A. Ferrer, many expected Ford to step in day one and be the Nationals’ starting catcher, but the Nats front office felt he could benefit from some time in Triple A to work on his defense.
It is clear the trade had an effect mentally on Ford, as he looked nothing like himself through his first month in the Nats organization, posting a .182 batting average and racking
up just 3 extra base hits on the month. As a result, he saw his prospect stock drop somewhat, falling off MLB Pipeline’s newest top 100 rankings.
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.
The overall numbers for this season at Triple-A will not look clean for Ford for a while, but after spending 5 seasons climbing the Seattle Mariners minor league system, it can be expected that he might not fully acclimate to baseball with a new club on the other side of the country immediately.
Ford is slowly but surely getting comfortable at Triple A for the Nats, and the results are getting back to where he and the Nationals organization expect them to be. Stack up a few more weeks of offensive success, and Ford could find himself back in the big leagues, this time as the starting catcher for the Washington Nationals.
