The Washington Nationals placed catcher Drew Millas on the 10-day injured list with a finger fracture, retroactive to Sunday, the team announced on Wednesday morning.
Taking his place on the roster, according to a new report from The Athletic's Spencer Nusbaum, will be top catching prospect Harry Ford, who's set to be recalled from Triple-A Rochester. Ford is the team's seventh-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, and entered the season ranked 71st overall on Jonathan Mayo's rankings.
It's been an up-and-down 2026 season for the 23-year-old backstop. The right-handed hitter, who's been assessed a 50 FV by both FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline, headed over to the Nats in a December trade with Isaac Lyon that sent José A. Ferrer to the Mariners. He returned to represent Great Britain in the 2026 World Baseball Classic for the second straight tournament, after becoming a cult hero in the 2023 installment when he posted a 1.246 OPS in the team's four games to help them re-qualify. Ford was named co-captain of the team alongside Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Harry was optioned to Triple-A to start the season, and things did not start smoothly. Through the end of May, Ford was slashing .206/.327/.277 for a 68 wRC+ with just one home run. He'd also gone 0-for-3 on stolen base attempts. He's looked, however, significantly better since then. In 21 games since June 1, Ford's now logged 7 extra-base hits (3 home runs) and a .262/.449/.462 slash for a 146 wRC+. His xwOBA jumped 40 points into the 75th percentile of Triple-A hitters between those two spans, and he's walking in nearly a quarter of his plate appearances.
The Nationals would like to see more power out of Ford, whose high walk rate is characteristic of his entire career, but the expectation is that he'll likely play a backup role anyway. Keibert Ruiz, already under an extended contract, has been a welcome surprise in 2026, making critically-needed adjustments both in the box and behind the plate to turn in what has easily been the best first half of his career with a 107 wRC+ (he'd not recorded higher than 87 in the first half before) and 1.3 fWAR.
Ford, for his part, has just eight major league plate appearances, all coming in September of last year with Seattle as a third-string catcher behind Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver. Ford also singled in his Postseason debut, a pinch-hit appearance in the 9th inning of a blowout loss for the Mariners in Game 3 of the ALCS.
With the Nationals, there will certainly be playing time on offer, if there's anything to be learned from the man he's replacing on the roster. Drew Millas had received over 150 plate appearances as the backup to Ruiz in 2026, despite, as Nusbaum reported, his finger looking "purple and swollen throughout the season after he fractured and dislocated it in 2025." Why exactly Millas was still on the roster and playing frequently despite this is unclear, but it could serve as a partial explanation for his pitiful .185/.277/.262 slash in the first year of his career where he'd received extended playing time in the major leagues. This will be his second time on the injured list in as many seasons.
Lyon, who was Seattle's 10th-round draft pick in 2025, is unranked in the team's top 30 prospect rankings, but has shown excellent progress in the low and mid-minors. The 22-year-old right-handed starter has a 3.44 ERA and 3.78 FIP in 68 innings across Class-A, Advanced-A, and Double-A ball this year. His father is Brandon Lyon, who logged nearly 700 major league innings across parts of 12 seasons with six teams.
Ferrer has continued his normal career path with Seattle, posting a 2.95 ERA in 44 appearances so far as the Mariners compete to win a relatively weak AL West division. In leverage, he's been about as consistent--or lack thereof--as he was in 2025 with the Nationals, recording 15 shutdowns against 9 meltdowns. A weak Mariners defense has done him no favors; the groundball-heavy lefty has one of the worst-ranked behind him.
The Nats will also receive bullpen reinforcements out of the break. Right-hander Max Kranick has been activated off the 60-day injured list and will join the relief staff after Matt Krook was designated for assignment and declared free agency on Tuesday morning. Kranick, 28 years old and in his 11th season of professional baseball, returned to the majors for the first time since 2022 with the Mets last year and was quietly one of the team's best stories. While his average leverage situation when entering games was higher than the typical reliever, leading to a shaky 8 shutdown-to-5 meltdown line, Kranick posted a 3.65 ERA in 24 appearances, 15 of which saw him record four or more outs.
A flexor strain in his right elbow in mid-June saw Kranick hit the IL, and surgery on the tendon got him transferred to the 60-day IL. The Mets non-tendered him after the season, and he signed a major league contract with the Nats at the start of May. He's made 8 minor league appearances on rehab assignment, and the team is hoping that if nothing else, Kranick can provide the length out of the bullpen they so dearly need the same way he did for New York in 2025.
Add us as a preferred source on Google