Mariners Complete Head-Scratching Trade, Ship Top 100 Prospect To Nationals

The Seattle Mariners entered the offseason needing left-handed relief help, and they must really like Jose A. Ferrer's odds of becoming a stud in their bullpen.

On Saturday, Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reported that Seattle had acquired Ferrer from the Washington Nationals. But Seattle fans are left collectively scratching their heads upon discovering what their team sent back to the nation's capital.

Golden reports that catching prospect Harry Ford and right-handed pitching prospect Isaac Lyon are headed to the Nationals in the deal. And although the Mariners clearly already had their starter of the present and future behind the plate, giving up Ford was a fairly big surprise.

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Why did Mariners give up Ford for Ferrer?

For starters, while Lyon could still turn out to be a star someday, he is not considered a Top 30 prospect in the Mariners' organization by MLB Pipeline. This deal was about acquiring Ford for the Nationals, as the 22-year-old was fourth on Pipeline's list among Mariners prospects and No. 42 in all of baseball.

Ford was stuck behind Cal Raleigh, the Most Valuable Player runner-up, in Seattle. It was never going to be a surprise if he got traded. However, the fact that he was trade for a reliever, and one without much of a proven track record at that, is a bit of a puzzler.

Now, as previously stated, the Mariners' need for another lefty in the bullpen was paramount. And Ferrer's Baseball Savant page makes him look a lot better than his 4.48 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 76 1/3 innings this season would indicate. He's a hard thrower with low walk and barrel rates, and could easily be a lockdown one-inning guy if the right tweaks are made.

Ferrer is also just 25 years old and comes with four years of team control, meaning he also will make the league minimum this year.

However, everyday position players are almost always more valuable to an organization than relief pitchers, so the Nationals had to be ecstatic that they were able to coax Ford out of Seattle. It's a feather in the cap of new Washington president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.

Will the Mariners regret sending Ford out of town? The only real determining factor should be how dominant they can get Ferrer to be, though they'll certainly be questioned for not including him in a deal for a bigger star.

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