There’s no rule that you have to wait until the Winter Meetings actually start to make trades. Saturday night, the Mariners and Nationals worked out a deal to send lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer to Seattle for rookie catcher Harry Ford and minor league pitcher Isaac Lyon. Ford was ranked 42nd in the MLB.com prospect rankings but is blocked in Seattle by Cal Raleigh, who had a huge 2025 season with the Mariners.

The deal affects Philadelphia because the Mariners had been interested in left-hander Matt Strahm. While Seattle is thought to be looking to acquire two relievers, it’s not sure if they would want to add two left-handers. They already have righties Andres Munoz and Matt Brash for the back end of their bullpen. The 25-year-old Ferrer had a 4.48 ERA with the Nationals in 2025, but took over as their closer when Kyle Finnegan was dealt to Detroit, and had 11 saves in the final two months of the season for the Nats. In 142 career appearances, Ferrer has a 4.36 ERA.

READ: Mariners Interested in Current and Former Phils Lefties

The trade also takes away a potential catching target for the Phillies. While Ford, 22, made his MLB debut in 2025 and has just six major league at-bats in eight games and is 1-for-6 (.167), he is highly touted and has solid numbers at every level of the minors throughout his career. In 2025 he hit a career-high 16 home runs with a slash line of .283/.408/.460 and stole 7 bases at Triple-A Tacoma. At Double-A in 2024, Ford stole 35 bases. His average is helped along by high walk rate thanks to his strong plate discipline. In five minor league seasons, Ford has played in 454 games with a line of 52-261-.266/.405/.428/.832. The fact that Raleigh had a career-year last season and signed a six-year contract extension prior to last season left Ford with no place to play in Seattle, although he did play eight games in left field in 2024.

The Phillies are in a holding pattern behind the plate with J.T. Realmuto checking out the free agent market and remaining unsigned. Ford would have made a good target to pursue even without Realmuto’s decision though since he is young enough to pick up some playing time behind Realmuto if he were to re-sign or be in line to take over the starting job if Realmuto signs elsewhere.

THE READ IN: MLB Winter Meetings Preview

Teams are gathering in Orlando for their annual meetings where many trades and free agent signings take place. The Phillies figure to be one of the busier teams both in terms of potential free agent signings and the potential for them to pull off a trade or two.

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