Harry Ford Is Coming to the Washington Nationals!

Harry Ford will make his Nationals debut soon. (Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)

What Is Happening?

The Washington Nationals (a baseball team) are going to bring up a young player named Harry Ford from their minor league team after a short break in the season called the All-Star break.

• Team sources told The Athletic about this on a Wednesday.
• Harry Ford is a catcher (the player who catches the ball from the pitcher).
• He will join the big league team soon!

Who Is Harry Ford?

Let’s learn a bit about this guy in a super simple way:

• He was ranked No. 5 in a list of the top 20 young Nationals players made before the season by a writer named Keith Law.
• He came to the Nationals in a winter trade: the Nationals sent a relief pitcher (someone who pitches late in games) named Jose A. Ferrer to the Seattle Mariners to get Ford.
• Ford is expected to be part of the team’s plans for a long time.
• He was picked No. 12 in the 2021 draft out of a high school in Georgia.
• He is 23 years old and even played a tiny bit for Seattle last season.

Why Is He Joining Now?

A player named Drew Millas got hurt, so Ford gets his chance.

• Drew Millas (the current Nationals catcher) was put on the 10-day injured list Wednesday (counted back to Sunday).
• He has a broken left index finger (the pointer finger on his left hand).
• His finger looked purple and swollen all season because he broke and dislocated it back in 2025.
• Ford will take Millas’s spot on the team.

How Has Ford Been Playing?

Ford’s year has been a little like a rollercoaster—some ups and downs.

• Behind the plate (as a catcher), his play has been up and down.
• He hit .223 with a .705 OPS for Rochester (his minor league team).
  (OPS is just a number that shows how good a player is at batting—higher is better.)
• He has been playing with a sore shoulder that made it harder for him to do well.
• But in the last six weeks, he got much better at batting:
  • He swung and missed less at good pitches.
  • He chased fewer bad pitches outside the strike zone.
  • He hit the ball a bit harder.
• His OPS was .841 in June and 1.028 in July—big improvement!
• For now, he will be the backup to the main catcher, Keibert Ruiz.

Important: Millas was only hitting .185 with a .539 OPS in Washington this year, but he was one of the best receiving catchers (catchers who handle pitches well) in all of MLB this season.

Another New Player Coming Too

The Nationals will also get a new relief pitcher when the second half of the season starts Friday against the Athletics.

1. His name is Max Kranick.
2. The team signed him to a big-league deal in May.
3. He was healing from an injury on a rehab assignment (a short time playing to get healthy).
4. He will make his Nationals debut in Sacramento.
5. The Nationals have the most blown saves in MLB (27!), so they really need bullpen help.
   (Bullpen = the group of relief pitchers. Blown save = losing a lead a reliever was supposed to protect.)

Summary

The Nationals are calling up top catching prospect Harry Ford after the All-Star break because Drew Millas broke his finger. Ford has improved a lot lately despite a shoulder injury and will back up Keibert Ruiz. Also, reliever Max Kranick will join the team Friday to help fix their struggling bullpen. Millas was a great defensive catcher but struggled at bat, and Ford looks ready for his shot.

FAQ

Q: What does “recall from Triple-A” mean?
A: It means bringing a player up from the highest level of the minor leagues (Triple-A Rochester) to play for the main big-league team.

Q: Why is Drew Millas not playing?
A: He broke his left index finger and was placed on the injured list for 10 days.

Q: What is OPS?
A: OPS is a simple score that combines how often a player gets on base and how much power they have when hitting. Bigger number = better batter.

Q: Who is Max Kranick and why does he matter?
A: He is a new relief pitcher joining the Nationals to help because the team has lost a lot of leads late in games (MLB-high 27 blown saves).