Teams generally hold onto consensus top-100 prospects who play catcher. Most teams, however, don’t have Cal Raleigh. The Seattle Mariners traded Harry Ford, the backstop they drafted with the No. 12 overall pick in 2021, to the Washington Nationals on Saturday for left-handed reliever Jose A. Ferrer.

The Mariners also sent minor-league righty Isaac Lyon to Washington in the deal.

Ford, 22, was listed as the No. 79 prospect in baseball in Keith Law’s preseason top-100 list. MLB.com currently has him as the game’s No. 42 prospect after he hit .283/.408/.460 with 16 home runs in 97 games with Triple-A Tacoma.

“Ford had a mixed year in 2024, moving up to Double A and continuing to get on base, albeit with slightly worse results across the board at the plate, while his defense behind the plate was worse and there’s more chance now that he ends up at DH than there was a year ago,” Law wrote when he listed him as the Mariners’ No. 5 prospect in February, when Ford was coming off a 2024 Double-A season in which he hit .249/.377/.367 with seven homers.

“He’s a plus runner and great athlete who moves well behind the dish, but he’s a 45 receiver right now and his plus arm hasn’t translated into even average caught-stealing rates. The Mariners did try him a few games in left field this year, but the early returns weren’t promising. He’s 21, knows the strike zone, has untapped power, and is very athletic, all reasons to still believe there’s upside here, but Ford’s 2024 season was kind of a disappointment, and if he doesn’t stay behind the plate I’m not sure the bat will profile as a regular at any other spot.”

Meanwhile, Raleigh established himself as the game’s preeminent catcher with a 60-homer season in 2025 that propelled him to a second-place finish in a close battle with New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge for the American League MVP.

Jose Ferrer ranked in the 99th percentile in ground-ball rate (64.3%), 95th percentile in walk rate (4.9%), 94th percentile in avg. fastball velocity (97.7 mph), and 93rd percentile in barrel rate (4.8%) across 72 appearances in 2025, per Baseball Savant. https://t.co/LH1jnETM0r

— Mariners PR (@MarinersPR) December 6, 2025

In return, the Mariners got the hard-throwing Ferrer, who became the Nationals’ closer late in his third season with the club. The 25-year-old collected 11 saves over the season’s final two months, and his underlying numbers suggest that he pitched better than his 4.48 ERA would suggest. Ferrer is now one of four lefty relievers on Seattle’s 40-man roster, which stands at 38. He is arbitration-eligible after the 2026 season.

The Mariners called up Ford in September, and he appeared in eight games while going 1-for-6 with three strikeouts and a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 12th inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 11. He also came into Seattle’s 13-4 loss in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays and picked up a single in his lone postseason at-bat.

After Seattle selected Lyon in the 10th round of the 2025 draft out of Grand Canyon University, he had a 7.30 ERA with 15 strikeouts over 12 1/3 innings for Low-A Modesto.