Seattle Mariners have high hopes for reliever Jose Ferrer

The Seattle Mariners made the expected move when they traded top catching prospect Harry Ford on Dec. 6, but the return wasn’t a player many fans had heard of.

As it unsurprisingly turns out, it was a name the Mariners had been familiar with for quite awhile.

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The M’s acquired hard-throwing lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer in the deal that sent Ford to the Washington Nationals. During this year’s first edition of The Hot Stove Show on Seattle Sports, general manager Justin Hollander broke down why the M’s acquired for Ferrer and some of their plans for him moving forward with play-by-play voices Aaron Goldsmith and Gary Hill Jr.

“We have been big Jose Ferrer fans for a number of years now,” Hollander said. “We think presently if we make no changes to Jose Ferrer, if we don’t do anything to help him get better, if he just stays the same as he is or was as a 25-year-old, he’s one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball today. Obviously, the back of the baseball card surface stats don’t necessarily show that right now. There are things underlying that are really exciting about both what he has already done in terms of keeping the ball on the ground and throwing strikes at a rate that most guys don’t do with the kind of stuff that he has.”

Ferrer, who turns 26 before the start of the season, features a sinker and four-seamer that sit at 97-98 mph and a slider and changeup in the upper-80s. He has a 4.36 ERA and 1.26 WHIP with 121 strikeouts and 35 walks over 142 1/3 innings pitched in three big league seasons.

The southpaw pitched a career-high 76 1/3 innings and had the third-highest groundball rate (62.6%) and 15th-best BB/9 (1.89) in baseball (minimum 70 innings pitched) last season, but his 4.48 ERA was over one run higher than the year before and would have ranked sixth among Mariners relievers with at least 40 innings pitched.

Hollander cited some bad luck contributing to Ferrer’s numbers last year. The .338 batting average on balls in play against him was the eighth-highest among pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched. The 1.45-point difference jump from his 3.09 FIP to his 4.48 ERA was also the fifth-highest minimum 70 innings pitched.

Ferrer threw his fastballs roughly 70% of the time and featured his changeup 21.9% and his slider just 7.5% of the time last season. Hollander said Ferrer’s secondary pitches would be a part of some the adjustments the organization has planned for him.

“Really excited about the chance to introduce some more of his secondary stuff to the mix, both situationally change up some of the pitch mix and also just like refine the secondary stuff that he has, help him get a little in the zone more,” Hollander said.

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And the team ultimately believes Ferrer brings a needed piece that was missing from the bullpen during its run to the American League West title and AL Championship Series in 2025.

“When you really dig in to what he is today and what he can be, we think he’s gonna be an elite reliever in the American League for at least the next several years,” Hollander said. “We’re really excited about what he can bring to the table, what he can do for our bullpen, which is provide another element that we really need, which is another power left-handed leverage reliever to go with Gabe Speier.”

Hear the full conversation with Mariners general manager Justin Hollander here or in the audio player in this story. Catch The Hot Stove Show from 7-9 p.m. on Tuesdays leading up to spring training or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

Seattle Mariners have high hopes for reliever Jose Ferrer

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