FIRST CONTACT
Ford anxiously awaiting major chance with Yanks
IT’S Greg Bird’s foot. It’s Neil Walker’s bat. It’s Tyler Austin’s cleat, and then his anger, and then his charge toward the mound.
For a second straight year, the pileup at first base has been grisly for the Yankees, their Plans A, B and C all going wrong in some way. And for a second straight year, Mike Ford is thinking the same thing.
“I’m here, I’m ready, I hope it happens soon,” the Triple-A Scranton/WilkesBarre first baseman said last week.
Ford has been a fixture in the Yankees’ minor league system since 2013, touching every level except the one he wants. The lefty hitter carries a big bat and a better eye — he has been hailed for his strike-zone discipline — as well as tree-trunk legs that, watching him run, may be as heavy as a tree.
Yes, he sees the myriad of issues the Yankees are dealing with at first, and he sees much-more-hyped teammates such as Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar getting their chances. He chalks it up to motivation.
“Definitely something that you think about a little bit,” said Ford, a Princeton graduate. “Hopefully I get a shot. I’ll be ready if I do.”
There’s a reason Ford is so confident he’s ready. In a way, he has tasted the level already.
The 25-year-old dipped his toe in the big league life this year with the Mariners, with whom he spent major league spring training camp. He was drafted as a Rule 5 pick, and Ford left the only organization he has known with a smile. Within minutes of the Dec. 14 Rule 5 draft, he had “about 30 texts” on his phone, and he called his parents letting them know the good news: He was going to get a shot to stick in the major leagues.
It didn’t go poorly. Ford, after a slow start, got hot in Peoria, Ariz., where he played solid defense at first — and took some reps in the outfield, as the Mariners explored diversifying him. He showed the same patience for which he has become known, batting .259 but with a .385 on-base percentage, and swatting a pair of home runs in 24 spring games.
It wasn’t enough. The Mariners chose Dan Vogelbach, who had the better camp, over Ford, and returned the Belle Mead., N.J., product to the Yankees. The Mariners called him toward the end of camp and delivered the news, starting a whirlwind few weeks.
“Toward the end, I think anyone that’s a Rule 5 pick will tell you, it’s kind of a day-to-day, am-I-going-tobe-here-tomorrow-or-am-Inot thing,” Ford said. “It’s like, I’m with Seattle, am I going to Washington or am I going to Pennsylvania? It’s a big jump. “The logistics of getting back here, getting to Yankees spring training camp because they had four days left of minor league camp. Getting up here [to Scranton] and finding a place with my fiancee. That’s probably the toughest part.”
And now Ford tries to do it all again, to get himself on the Yankees’ radar (or on someone else’s). His patient approach at the plate is similar — he’s coming off a season in which he had more walks (94) than strikeouts (72) combined at SWB and Double-A Trenton — but his mindset is slightly different. If Ford didn’t find a job at Mariners camp, he found a confidence.
“I learned I could play at their level, and that’s a big thing for me,” Ford said.
This year, the 6-foot, 225pound Ford has started respectably, slashing .274/.341/ .425 with two homers and nine RBIs in 19 games entering Friday. All of which have come at first or DH; he said he’s still working in the outfield to creak another door open, though the Yankees haven’t tried the experiment yet in a game. (This is a player who was the first ever Ivy League Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year — what’s one more position conversion?)
At this point, beginning his sixth minor league season, he’s desperate for any way to break through. And if it comes in The Bronx, in the shadow of where he starred growing up?
“I don’t think they would allow [me to have] that many [tickets],” Ford said with a smile. “I don’t think I can ask enough people for tickets. I’m sure my dad would help out.”