No one would have blamed Harry Ford for celebrating Saturday.

The team that traded him away, the Seattle Mariners, might as well have been baseball purgatory for a catcher eyeing full-time work in MLB. And his new team, the Washington Nationals? No MVP finalist. No backstop with a six-year, $105 million extension. No big butt that captured hearts across the sport.

That situation brought Ford (a top-100 prospect) and pitching prospect Isaac Lyon (a 2025 10th-round draft pick) to Washington in exchange for reliever Jose A. Ferrer. Without Cal Raleigh blocking Ford’s way, a clearer path toward playing time could have brought comfort. But there is what you might assume Harry Ford felt. And then there is what Harry Ford actually felt.

“I was pretty sad,” said Ford, who was a Northwest League

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