Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Harry Ford Could Debut Tonight, But How Will the Mariners Give Him Enough Playing Time?

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Ty and Colby discuss Harry Ford's potential call-up then review some of your Mariners trade ideas.DONATE TO OUR FEEDING AMERICA FUNDRAISERCheck out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So Harry Ford is with Mariners in Arlington. If he is indeed added to the 26th man roster today, how's that going to work? We'll talk about that and then grade your trades here on fan fiction Friday. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors.

It is Friday, June 27th, 2025. This is Tadangazis and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network of your team. every day. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the promo code Locked-on MLB, that's L-O-C-K-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off your first purchase. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby, even more, and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So, of course, it's Fan Fiction Friday, but we're going to get to

your trades a little later on because we actually have some stuff to talk about. First foremost, Cal Raleigh has officially entered the home run derby, which is really cool and also as expected because of course he was going to get the invite to do it. He's the league leader in home runs. And a couple of weeks ago when he was on with Mina Kimes, he told Mina, if he got the opportunity to do it, he was going to do it. So he's doing it. And he will try to be the first ever catcher and switch hitter to win the home run

derby, which would be yet another incredibly cool milestone put on a, already incredibly impressive resume in 2025. We also have some other catching news involving the Mariners. Mitch Carver obviously left yesterday's game against the twins in the bottom of the fifth inning after being struck in the chin, jaw, neck area by a foul ball. Cal wound up having to catch about half a game that he wasn't supposed to, which includes a 39 pitch 8 run inning thrown by Zach Pop. I assume we're going to get a roster move involving Zach Pop today.

But that pales in comparison to the other roster move that the Marrers might make, maybe by the time that you're watching this. So Harry Ford, one of the Marys top prospects, their top catching prospect, was scratch from the Rainier's lineup right before their game. against Round Rock, which is only a couple hours away from Arlington, where the Marys are going to be playing, of course, this weekend. So that obviously sent up some signals in light of Garver's injury. So I reached out to Harry's dad, who's been a longtime supporter of the show.

Shout out to Alan. He's supported us even before we started locked on. He supported the Patreon and all that. So shout out to him. So I reached out to him. I was like, hey, is this happening? Did he get called up? He was like, yes, he did.

So I put that out there. And then a little bit after that, Daniel Kramer and Adam Jude, and I think Shannon Dreher all reported that for now, Ford's going to be on the taxi squad until the team determines what's going on with Garber. Because we don't know yet exactly what the severity of Garber's injury is. The expectation was that they were going to do more tests on him once they got to Arlington. And I assume that is happening right now as we're speaking. That's about to happen or that has already happened. And then they're going to make a decision there. But because Cal caught half a game that he wasn't supposed to yesterday,

Cal's not going to catch tonight. So they need either Garver to catch or someone else to catch tonight. And so my understanding is if Garver is deemed unable to go, they're going to place Garver on the IL and add Harry Ford to the 40 and 26 man rosters. So that's kind of interesting for a multitude of reasons. I mean, we've already talked ad nauseum both on here and on the Patreon about how murky the path to regular playing time is for Ford at the major league level because obviously one of the best players on the planet plays at the position that he plays in Cal Raleigh. But also because they don't know exactly what's going on with Garver and what I've been told. is like they don't think that he suffered a fracture or anything like that

kind of feels like even if he does go on the i.l that might be a pretty temporary thing so if that's the case kind of weird that they would call up harry ford if it is such a temporary thing instead of you know just blake hunt or jacob nottingham or whatever so that's pretty interesting but in general coley if he does get added to the roster today how do you think this works out Yeah, tough to say. You know, we've talked about how the role for Harry Ford cannot be the role that Mitch Garver is currently playing. Could it be that way for 10 days?

Maybe. Yeah, you might be able to get away with it for 10 days. But, yeah, long term, obviously, Harry can't just play once a week. Like, that just doesn't work. So, yeah, it would be interesting. And obviously, tonight sounds like you would catch. catch and Cal would get a DH day. But then you'd still have nine more days with no days off in between, by the way,

to kind of try and figure out how to make that work. And I think for this to be the move, I think you got to get Harry at least four starts. You have to find him four starts in a 10-day stretch for it to be remotely feasible. So I think, you know, it's probably catches twice. and then you have to find a couple of DH days. But every day you're D.H and Harry Ford, one of Polanco, Young, Rayleigh, Kansas. Like basically like how you use Ford impacts the way you use Raleigh.

And the way that you use Raleigh impacts the way you use Polanco. And the way you use Polanco impacts the way you use Young. Like the list goes on and on it. Like that's why again, we've talked about this. Mitch Garver being potentially removed from the equation only solves at most half of the problem here. Yep. This is a multi-player thing, multi-layer thing here when it comes to Harry Ford. So, yeah.

Now, I suppose what they technically could do is they could just add Harry Ford tonight and demote somebody else, like not put Garber on the aisle. if Garber's only going to need a day or two, then you could, in theory, carry Harry Ford for a couple days. And then you would just, like, DFA, Zach Pop, go with a seven-man bullpen. Sure. You know, the bullpen's in actually pretty good shape right now, even though, you know, they had to cover quite a few innings. I mean, they got blown out yesterday and Master Pony finished one.

So, like, the bullpen should be able to withstand being a man down for a couple days. So, yeah, I suppose it's possible. that they could just do that and then go with an extra guy on the bench, even though Garver can't play. And then they could just send down Harry in a couple days and then just bring up the reliever that they were going to bring up to replace Pop anyways. So they could do something like that. I think that's the only way they would do it without Garver going on the IL.

Because, again, if you send somebody down, they have to stay down for at least 10 days unless there's an injury. So if it's let's call up Harry Ford and we'll send down Miles Master Pony, it's like, like, okay, but you won't have him back for 10 days. Like you have to, and you might be able to do that because you might be able to send down Master Pony and then be like, okay, Harry, now you're going back down and we're going to call up Leo Rivas for, you know, the rest of the week. And then we'll make that swap again.

So there are some other avenues that you could do here to get Harry on the roster without putting Garver on the IL. But it does seem like the simplest thing to do would be to, you know, if Harry is coming up, then you need to put, just put Garver on the I.L. I'll give him 10 days anyways, not the end of the world for a bet like him. And then it comes to how do I get Harry in 10 days? How do I get him? I don't know, probably 20, 25 at bat, something like that.

It seems fair. But yeah, you're taking out bats away from somebody else, which isn't a big deal if you're just doing it like, if Jorge Polanco gets a day off in the next 10 days because Harry Ford needs the age, fine. And then Cole Young can get a day off because Harry Ford needs to DH and Palanco can play second that day. Fine. It's not a big deal for Harry to take at-bats away from, you know, guys who are hitting okay right now one day over the next 10. So it's not the end of the world. But again, you can't just have him catch and then sit on the bench until you need him to catch again. That's just not, that's just not great.

You're not doing him any favors. Again, you know, if we get to the point where, you know, maybe the AAA season is almost over or it's over and you want to give him more reps, then you can just add him as basically strictly a backup catcher in September. You can do that. That's totally fun if you want to do that. But while there's just so many opportunities left for him to have in AAA, if you don't have, if you're not going to be willing to give him regular playing time at the major league level, you need to keep him in AAA. So, yeah. So it's going to be interesting. see kind of how they maneuver this. I assume though, because they are making the call to him

and not Nottingham or they have some sort of plan in place here to make that happen. There are going to be at least a couple of games here over the next week or so where it's pretty obvious that he's going to be in the lineup. Again, this is assuming that he is added to the roster today. But July 2nd, they're supposed to face Royals rookie left-hander Noah Cameron. And then a couple days later, they go on to face Pirates lefty Bailey Fultor. So I assume on those nights, he'll DH or catch, you know, and Cal will do the other. And probably Cole Young just gets the night off and polo play second. Though that that aspect isn't super important.

But that's probably like we're at very least going to see Harry Ford playing those games if he has added to the roster. but he needs to play more than that. If you're going to make this move, he needs to start against some Ritey's. Like he should be in the lineup almost every day during his duration on the major league roster, however long that may be. Because even if this is a temporary thing,

you don't want to impede the momentum that he's built down in AAA. And suddenly half him only play once or twice for, you know, the span of 10 days or so. So going to be really fascinated to see how they, how they maneuver that. But also, you know, on the flip side of this, we know how wildly inconsistent the smearys offense has been. And, you know, watching this offense continue to do what it's done,

while Harry is down in AAA, you know, slashing 311, 400, whatever it is, you know, is on base percentage and like a 460 slugging percentage here. I'll get the slash line. Yeah, 311, 426, 469. While he's doing that, like, that's been tough to ignore. You know, also while he's running a 17% strikeout rate and a 15% and a half percent walk rate. Now, of course, you know, Cole Young hasn't been fantastic at the plate, though, over his last, you know, a couple of weeks.

He's been well over 100 WRC plus. You know, Ben Williamson has obviously had some moments, but overall, I think his WRC plus is in the 70s. Yeah. Yeah. So like there's no guarantee whatsoever that Harry Ford is going to come up and he's just going to hit the way that he has down in AAA, none whatsoever. But again, this offense could use some help. Harry Ford is producing at a very, very high rate right now in AAA. He's smoking the ball. He's answered some questions about the over the wall pop. Though, you know, it's in the PCL, but still. And he's getting on base a ton. Yeah, I mean, like at least Williamson and Young have brought some kind of element of like contact and athleticism to the bottom of the lineup. Like Young's over the last couple weeks, I don't know how yesterday factored into this, but he was hitting like 340 over his last 14 games. But it's just a lot of, you know, like CNI singles. Like he's not driving the baseball, but he's still finding a way to contribute.

And Ben Williamson, you know, when he's. he's on he's just flipping singles into right field and he's finding a way to contribute. And obviously they're more athletic, so they're better base runners and better defenders and what they were having out there, you know, at the beginning of the year. And, and, you know, Harry can do some of that stuff as well. It's just because he can only catch or DH. Like the meritors are not going to give him a first base club in his major league debut and be like, figure it out.

You know, they're not going to be like, hey, go play left field today. Like, that's not going to happen. It is catching or deaching. and that makes things more difficult to get him regular playing time. So we'll see how they want to handle it. But again, I think if it's a short-term thing and it sounds like it is, it doesn't sound like Garver's, you know, would have to even, it doesn't sound like Garber is likely to even need an IL stint at all,

but they might just have to do that. But yeah, we'll see how they handle that. But for a short stint, like 10 days or so, it's not as important as if you were just going to call him up in June and DFA Garber. and be like, you know, he's the backup catcher now. Like, no. But for 10 days, you could find a way to get him three or four starts without it crushing you.

All right. So it's fan fiction Friday. Like I said, we're going to get into your trades in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Locked on Mara's podcast is once again brought to you by game time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a Mara's game either by yourself or with friends or family? You know, maybe it's game day.

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be sure to tune into the Marriss Postcast with Anderson Hurst and Christopher Crawford, available on both the Lockdown Marrars YouTube and podcast feeds. Before we get into your trades here on Fan Fiction Friday, I want to give you a quick update on our Feeding America fundraiser. We're now up to $6,811 raise. Thank you so much to everyone that has contributed so far. We only got one donation yesterday, though. What's going on, guys?

What's up? You guys don't want to feed America? $29.29 and 29 cents here from Anonymous says great cause. Thanks, locked on areas. Appreciate it, anonymous. So obviously, feeding America, great cause that is trying to, as the name indicates, feed America. 50 million Americans suffer from food insecurity, including one out of every five children. And obviously, with school out right now, a lot of kids are losing access.

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That's a way you can contribute without taking anything out of your wallet. But we are over 200 subscribers added, I think, at this point since we started it. So that's already 200 meals plus going to people who could really, really, really use them. So thank you so much if you have subscribed or if you've told a friend or a family member or what have you to subscribe as well. We're really looking to take this thing as far as we can. This is running through or up until the All Star break, which is about two and a half weeks away. Last time we did this, we went over $15,000 raise. So we're running a little bit behind on that, but we would love to break that.

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And again, let's see how far we can take this thing. Let's get into your trades. Matthew has a deal here. It's a three-team deal with Phillies and the Orioles. The Phillies get Andreas Munoz and Cedric Mullins from the Orioles. The Orioles get Andrew Painter and Ada Miller from the Phillies and Johnny Farmello from the Mariners. And the Mariners get Jordan Westberg and Janiere Canoe from the Orioles and Jordan Romano from the Phillies. Yeah, a lot going on.

So Seattle would give up Munoz and Marmelo. And they would get Westberg, Canoe, and Romano. Westberg has been very good this year. Do you. I'm bad. So he's getting on base under 300 right now. Yeah. So I mean, Munoz for Westberg, I mean, you'd still rather have to position

player, sure. But, you know, you'd like that guy to be hitting right now. Canoe is there to kind of replace Munozolo. Didn't Cano just get demoted? He did. I don't know why, though, because his numbers have been fine, so I don't know if that's maybe, like, they just don't have enough guys that have options. He's the guy that had options and they just need an extra reliever.

I don't know if it's one of those. I don't know if it's one of those situations, though, because, like, the numbers overall are fine for Cano. Yeah. So is this enough to give up? Munoz and Vermelho? Yeah, I don't know because Westberg's not hitting right now. It's pretty creative, though, because we know Baltimore really needs pitching. And Seattle doesn't really have the upper level minor league pitching to give for one of the, you know, potentially impact bats that Baltimore has to offer.

So, yeah, Andrew Painter certainly can be that guy as well. And obviously they would get Farmel and Miller. Those are three really good prospects. And Canoe and Mollins, I don't think they care that much about giving those guys up, especially Mollins who's in rental anyways. So, yeah, there's some interesting pieces here. I'm not sure if they line up well enough to actually make this deal that realistic. But it is interesting.

I mean, Seattle trades Munoz. and they replace him with, you know, I mean, they're certainly not as good as Munoz, obviously, who is. But yeah, so this is, this is interesting. It's creative. I think, I think it's probably just a little bit off, though. I think, honestly, Philly might be giving up. Yeah, I think the Phillies having to give up a painter.

and Miller here is a little too much. Plus, we've talked about this when talking about the Munoz thing in general. I think if the Phillies are being asked to trade Painter and Miller to get Munoz because he has all the club control left, very team friendly dollar figures. They're just going to go, you know what, we're going to go trade for half a year of Raldus Chapman or we're going to go trade for a year and a half Pete Fairbanks or whatever, right? and not have to give up Andrew Painter or Adam Miller for any of those guys, most likely. So, yeah, I mean, again, they definitely need back in bullpen help in the worst way.

But I think they can do that without giving up both Painter and Miller. So, yeah, I think Philly probably boxed this. And I don't know if this is enough for Seattle to move Munoz. No, I think this is a trade that Marys would do. and the mirrors would be more willing to entertain, I should say, during the off season than midseason because of how bad Westberg has been this year. Yeah, I think so. So, yeah, I mean, like, I'll give it a 50. Like, I don't think the valuation's terrible.

Sure. I just, I just don't see that this deal is being all that likely, but it is creative. And obviously, three-team deals get a little bit of a leeway there on. realism just because they're really hard to do. So I think this is solid, but I don't think it gets it done. Yeah, agreed. I'm going to go 45 for the creativity, but I think it's kind of D-O-A because of the Phillies aspect of it.

And I just don't think the mares are going to be willing to entertain it either. Our friend Isaac submitted a deal here with the Braves. Ooh, shooting high here. George Kirby, Luke Rayley, Johnny Farmello, and Jeter Martinez to the Atlanta Braves for Ronald Ocuna Jr. Vizel Iglesias and $8 million in cash. I assume the $8 million in cash is to cover Iglesias's money. Because he's making like, what, 15 this year, 16, something like that. So that's actually probably a little bit more than what the pro-rated money is going to be on him,

but whatever. So yeah You think this gets it done For Acuna? I don't know No No yeah No

Ocunia is locked into that That really good deal right now too He's also like the best sitter on the planet right now Right so I think the Braves are willing to Live with some of the I guess we'll call them antics Like I really I don't that's a strong word for what Acuna does, but like,

Okunia's not afraid to be opinionated and state his opinion out loud and some teams don't like that. But are we talking about the thing where he said like, if I did what Jared Kelnick did, I would have gotten advanced or whatever. Like stuff like that. And I think there's been one or two other things.

Like nothing super problematic or anything. It's just, you know, making the organization look bad. He's played only 31 games this year since coming back off of his second ACL tear. Like three wins. He's been worth 2.2 F4. He's slashing 369, 485, 658.

Yeah. He's a monster. He's also, like I said, he's also locked in for like the next five, six years, right? Like he is, he's got his deal already. I don't think that you can put together a package that would force Acuna to be put on the table even. I think you can, but I think it involves either Julio or Cal Raleigh. Like I said, you can't even put together a package. package that would.

Yeah, he's got four years left, by the way, which includes two club options. Yeah, and George's got three years left, like, I don't know, maybe because of the injury history and maybe because some of the off the field, which I'm saying in air quotes, stuff. Maybe George is, is like enticing to Atlanta, but Rayleigh, Farmello, eh, I just, I don't think that you can I don't think you can get the the Braves to move Acuna Jr.

right now. So for that reason, it's like, I don't know, probably a 40, but like, if the Braves were willing to do it, if they were willing to, like, trade Acuna, would I float George Kirby? All day, every day.

Like, without question. Like, I would do this if I were Seattle. Atlanta's not doing it. Oh, yeah. I don't. Oh, I'm doing this in a heartbeat from. Yeah.

I'm tackling as I do it too. Like, screw it. I'll live with Logan Evans for two months. It means I have Ronald Acuna for the next four years. Yeah. So, yeah,

I think, you know, hats off for taking the big swing here. It's just, I don't think this guy's available. So the, the realism score is just way off here. And so anytime,

you know, we get one of these, like, big idea trades to trade for a superstar i got to knock it a little bit because it's just not realistic and so uh because of that i i think this is probably like a 40 yeah i'm i was going to go 35 on it sorry i was like i just uh i like the ambition but i don't i don't think it i don't think it moves the needle for realism is part of the rubric here so like yeah yeah this one's just not real uh all right cody has a deal here with the nationals

Tyler Locklear, Harry Ford, Michael Morales to Washington for Kyle Finnegan and Nathaniel Lowe. So Finnegan, been a solid reliever. He's a rental. Nathaniel Lowe, we know the mayor is really like him. There's probably going to be some teams that are in on him. But he's also been not good this year, which is a bit of a surprise because he's been really consistent for most of his career. But he's been below average as a header this year.

obviously under club control for 2026 as well so there's some appeal there in that regard for Seattle but I don't know I don't know if I'm even willing to trade Harry Ford for him right now yeah um you know the nice thing is is that you do get uh you do get a reliever that you desperately need in this deal as well yeah I I think there's some there's some uh what's the word I'm looking for here. Confusion on what the trade value of Harry Ford is, which makes sense. We've talked about this a lot. He's a very polarizing prospect. But like, just because he's blocked in Seattle doesn't mean Seattle should just give him away. Because he's still a catcher, like a pretty good one. Like he's at least average behind the plate who's probably going to

provide some offensive value. And he's 21 years old, 22 years old. like that is really valuable and like i i think you would get the raise to value him a lot higher than this yeah i mean like if if this is the best i can get for harry ford a struggling nathaniel low and what two months of kyle finnegan i'm probably not interested locklear and morales to me whatever i mean trade them for any major leagher that can help you i really don't care like they're replaceable to me so really it's for finnigan and low and it's just like i get you get an extra year of low, but he's been so bad this year. Do you want to bank on him turning it around in the final two months of the year and have that cost, you know,

arguably your best actually available trade chip or one of your best actually available trade chips? I don't know. Like, I wouldn't be furious of this deal, I went across the ticker, but it does feel like you probably could have gotten a better headliner for Harry Ford. And if you can't, like, okay. then I'll just go trade, you know, for for a rental at first base instead of paying extra for, you know, a full year of low and low hasn't been good this year. So I don't think it's bad. I just, I don't think it's something that I would do. But I think it's like a 45. Like it's pretty close to being. Yeah, I'd go 40 on this. I'd honestly be kind of disappointed. All right, that is going

to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown. Marr's podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadang Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tading Azalus and Colby at C-Pat-E-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend.

And we'll see you next time. Peace.