First baseman Mike Ford will elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment with the Reds, per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer on X. Ford was designated for assignment earlier this week but evidently passed through waivers unclaimed.
The 31-year-old is capable of being a potent slugger but has struggled with consistency, both this year and in his career. He has had an on-and-off relationship with the Reds this year, having signed two minor league deals that both ended in him opting out, as well as a major league deal that followed.
Around those transactions, he put up a massive .455/.486/.727 line in Spring Training and hit .297/.381/.538 in Triple-A. Unfortunately, once in the big leagues, his production fell to .150/.177/.233 in 62 plate appearances. A tiny .182 batting average on balls in play surely weighed that line down, but the Reds cut him from the roster regardless.
Ford has struggled in the big leagues before but had his best showing in the majors just last year. He got into 84 games with the Mariners and hit 16 home runs. His 32.3% strikeout rate was on the high side but he drew walks at a solid 9.6% rate and slashed .228/.323/.475 for a 123 wRC+.
Despite that impressive performance, the M’s non-tendered Ford, which led to his transactions dance with the Reds this year. His most recent big league showing wasn’t great but, as mentioned, a lot of that appears to have been BABIP-based. He was great in the bigs last year and also looked great this year in Spring Training and at Triple-A.
He’ll now take some time to suss out opportunities but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him and the Reds reconnect in a few days, as they’ve already done a handful of times so far this year.
Pirates?
OMG stay away from the Yankees no matter how bad Rizzo is this year.
I guess that Ford wasn’t electric
Back to the Mariners for a 5th time.
He’s the key for the Reds’ success
Perfect fit for Boston right now
Come to Seattle! Platoon with garver!
No no no no no Dipoto!
just what you would expect from a Ford
Good luck.
Mike please I’m begging you go into coaching or a different profession before it’s too late. He’s literally the crash Davis of 1B. He’s a AAAA player
Crash was in better shape.
“He was great last year”
No, as a matter of fact he was not great last year. He hit with a lot of power his first two months, then he fell of drastically and had a total of 6 extra base hits in August, September and October.
Last season, Ford did what a lot of AAAA players do, they come up and feast on fastballs for a bit and then get shut down by big league pitching. As a Cubs fan I can think of a handful of perfect examples, Schwindel, Fox, LaHair
He was the Reds 3 hole hitter last week lol poor Reds.
He should go back to Princeton to complete his degree and then work for a hedge fund.