Harry Ford (baseball)

Last updated

Harry Ford
Seattle Mariners – No. 5
Catcher
Born: (2003-02-21) February 21, 2003 (age 22)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 5, 2025, for the Seattle Mariners
Men's baseball
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
European Championship
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2023 Czechia Team

Harrison Michael Ford (born February 21, 2003) is a British-American professional baseball catcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected by the Mariners in the first round of the 2021 MLB draft and made his MLB debut in 2025. He represents Great Britain at the international level.

Contents

Amateur career

Ford attended North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. As a senior, he batted .296 with seven doubles and five home runs and was named the Greater Atlanta Player of the Year by MaxPreps. [1] Ford played in 104 games over four varsity seasons and batted for a .343 average with 83 runs scored, 20 doubles, seven triples, seven home runs, and 57 runs batted in (RBI). [2] He committed to play college baseball at Georgia Tech. [3]

Professional career

Draft and minor leagues

The Seattle Mariners selected Ford in the first round, with the 12th overall pick, in the 2021 Major League Baseball draft. [4] On July 22, 2021, he signed with the Mariners for the assigned slot value of $4.36 million. [5] Ford made his professional debut that summer with the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League Mariners, slashing .291/.400/.482 with three home runs, ten RBI, seven doubles, nine walks, and 14 strikeouts over 65 plate appearances. [6]

Ford played in 2022 for the Modesto Nuts of the Single-A California League. [7] He hit .274 with 11 home runs. In 2023, he was promoted to the High-A Everett AquaSox, where he hit .257 with 15 home runs. He was a postseason Northwest League All-Star, leading the league with 103 walks. Ford advanced another level in 2024, and his batting average continued to drop, hitting .249 with 7 home runs for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. He suffered a concussion in late July, landing on the injured list for 7 days. [8] [9]

Ford was selected to play in the All-Star Futures Game in 2023, 2024, and 2025. He struck out in his single at-bat in 2023, and he walked in his lone plate appearance in 2024. [10] [11] He struck out again in 2025, also throwing out an attempted base stealer. [12] Ford was named the Mariners' top prospect and a top 50 overall prospect by MLB.com before the 2023 season [13] and the top Mariners prospect and #40 overall prospect by FanGraphs in the middle of the 2024 season. [14]

Ford began the 2025 season with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers, batting .283/.408/.460 with 16 home runs, 74 RBI, and seven stolen bases across 97 games. In late June, he joined the Mariners as catcher Mitch Garver recovered from a jaw injury, but Ford was not added to the team's roster. [15] [16] After the season, Minor League Baseball named him the top prospect in the Pacific Coast League. [17]

Major leagues

On September 1, 2025, the Mariners added Ford to their 40-man roster and promoted him the major leagues. [18] [19] He made his MLB debut on September 5 against the Atlanta Braves, striking out on three pitches as a pinch hitter. [20] Two days later, after entering as a defensive replacement, he was hit by a pitch and scored his first run in the majors. On September 11, he drove in his first major league run with a 12th-inning, walk-off sacrifice fly to right field to beat the Los Angeles Angels. [21] [22] He had his first MLB hit, a single off Tyler Glasnow of the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 27. [23] In his September call-up, Ford batted 1-for-6 in 8 games. [21]

In his first postseason, Ford, on the roster as a backup catcher, batted once, hitting a single at the end of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. [24] [25]

International career

Ford plays for Great Britain in international competition because it is the birthplace of both his parents. [26] [27] At the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers in Germany in September 2022, he helped his team win all three of its games, homering in the team's final victory over Spain. [28] [29] [30] His three home runs led the qualifiers, and his 8 RBI tied for the most. [31] He then played for Great Britain in the 2023 WBC, hitting two home runs and batting .308 in four games. [32] [33] [34]

At the 2023 European Baseball Championship in September 2023 in the Czech Republic, Ford played catcher and DH and batted .429 with 3 home runs in 21 at-bats, leading the tournament with 12 RBI and 5 stolen bases. [35] [36] [37]

Personal life

Growing up in the Atlanta area, Ford was a fan of Freddie Freeman and the Atlanta Braves. He competed against Freeman in the 2023 WBC. In 2025, Ford made his MLB debut in Atlanta and later greeted Freeman, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after collecting his first MLB hit. [38] [39]

Ford's parents met in Georgia, where he was born. They later divorced, and his father lives in the United Kingdom. [31] [40] His mother is black. As a child, he attended catching clinics led by former MLB catcher Charles Johnson. Ford said it would "be cool to change that stigma" regarding African-American catchers in MLB. [27] [41]

Ford received the Mariners' "Dan Wilson Community Service Award" in 2023. [8] [42] In 2025, he pledged a donation for every home run he hit to a charitable organization that provides safe drinking water. He chose that cause after visiting Peru in January 2025. [43] [44]

References

  1. ↑ Askeland, Kevin (July 6, 2021). "2021 MaxPreps All-America Team: Louisiana pitcher Jack Walker headlines high school baseball's best". MaxPreps . Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  2. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (July 11, 2021). "Mariners draft prep C Harry Ford at No. 12". MLB.com.
  3. ↑ Gustafson, Brandon (July 12, 2021). "Mariners draft athletic Georgia HS C/OF Harry Ford with 1st-round pick". Seattle Sports .
  4. ↑ "North Cobb catcher selected by Mariners in first round of MLB draft". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . July 11, 2021. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Mariners Sign Top Three Draft Picks". MLB Trade Rumors. July 22, 2021.
  6. ↑ "2021 Arizona Complex League Top 10 Prospects". Baseball America . September 29, 2021.
  7. ↑ Hamilton, Quinton (April 7, 2022). "MiLB Notebook: Hear from Nuts' top prospect and coaching staff ahead of 2022 season". The Modesto Bee.
  8. 1 2 Seattle Mariners 2025 Media Guide. 2025. p. 129.
  9. ↑ "Mariners' Harry Ford: Recovering well from concussion". CBS Sports. August 3, 2024. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  10. ↑ "MLB Gameday: NL Futures 5, AL Futures 0 Final Score (07/08/2023)". MLB.com. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  11. ↑ "MLB Gameday: NL Futures 6, AL Futures 1 Final Score (07/13/2024)". MLB.com. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  12. ↑ Trezza, Joe; Sepe-Chepuru, Shanthi (July 13, 2025). "Here's how all 30 teams' prospects fared in the Futures Game". MLB.com. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Here are the Mariners' 2023 Top 30 prospects". MLB.com. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  14. ↑ "The Board". FanGraphs . Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  15. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (June 28, 2025). "On taxi squad, Ford enjoying 'cool day' in big leagues". MLB.com. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  16. ↑ Stecker, Brent (June 27, 2025). "Seattle Mariners Update: No Ford yet as Garver says he's fine". Seattle Sports. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  17. ↑ Terranova, Rob (September 28, 2025). "The 2025 Triple-A All-Stars and award winners". MLB.com. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  18. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (September 1, 2025). "Mariners bring up top catching prospect Harry Ford". MLB.com. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  19. ↑ Divish, Ryan (September 1, 2025). "Mariners call up top prospect Harry Ford and release Donovan Solano". Seattle Times. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  20. ↑ "Mariners Game Notes — Sept. 6 at Braves". Seattle Mariners. September 6, 2025. Retrieved September 8, 2025.
  21. 1 2 "Harry Ford 2025 Batting Game Logs". Baseball Reference . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  22. ↑ "Touted rookie Harry Ford delivers off bench as Mariners top Angels in 12 to tie for 1st in AL West". AP News. September 11, 2025. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  23. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (September 28, 2025). "Ford picks up first career hit -- with his childhood hero standing at first". MLB.com. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  24. ↑ "Harry Ford singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Daulton Varsho. | 10/15/2025". MLB.com. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  25. ↑ Polishuk, Mark (October 12, 2025). "Mariners Add Bryan Woo, Miles Mastrobuoni To ALCS Roster". MLB Trade Rumors. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  26. ↑ Harrigan, Thomas (September 16, 2022). "Top Mariners prospect Ford goes yard for Great Britain". MLB.com .
  27. 1 2 Laurila, David (February 26, 2023). "Sunday Notes: Born To Brits, Harry Ford Could Be MLB's Next Great Black Catcher". FanGraphs . Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  28. ↑ "Great Britain baseball men's team announces roster for 2022 World Baseball Classic qualifier". British Baseball Federation . September 15, 2022. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  29. ↑ "MLB Gameday: Spain 9, Great Britain 10 Final Score (09/20/2022)". MLB.com. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  30. ↑ "Harry Ford crushes a solo home run to center field | 09/20/2022". MLB.com. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  31. 1 2 McCalvy, Adam (March 8, 2023). "Dad beams as Ford leads breakthrough for Britain". MLB.com. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  32. ↑ "World Baseball Classic Stats: Great Britain". MLB.com. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  33. ↑ Scott, William (October 31, 2023). "Seattle Mariners prospect Harry Ford uses AFL to improve his game". Cronkite News. Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Archived from the original on May 13, 2025. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  34. ↑ Yates, Clinton (March 14, 2023). "Seattle Mariners prospect Harry Ford is turning heads for Great Britain at the World Baseball Classic". Andscape . Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  35. ↑ "Harry Ford Stats | 2023 European Baseball Championship". WBSC Europe . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  36. ↑ "2023 European Baseball Championship Stats". WBSC Europe . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  37. ↑ WBSC Europe (November 3, 2023). EuroBaseball 2023: Highlights Great Britain VS Italy. Event occurs at 0:55. Retrieved September 15, 2025– via YouTube.
  38. ↑ Divish, Ryan (March 18, 2023). "'Sir' Harry Ford returns to M's after run in World Baseball Classic". HeraldNet. The Seattle Times. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  39. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (September 28, 2025). "Ford picks up first career hit -- with his childhood hero standing at first". MLB.com. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  40. ↑ Kruse, Ethan (August 22, 2023). "Harry Ford - True Identity". His Huddle. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  41. ↑ Terranova, Rob. "MiLB Player of the Week Spotlight: Ford". MiLB.com. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  42. ↑ "Mariners Select Harry Ford". MiLB.com. September 1, 2025. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  43. ↑ Kramer, Daniel (March 14, 2025). "Ford (No. 4 prospect) gives back in a big way". MLB.com. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  44. ↑ "Mariners prospect Harry Ford answering God's call to respond to global water crisis". Water Mission. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
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