After an absurd 2022 in which he was involved in 32 different transactions across four different organizations, Ford's 2023 was staggeringly straightforward. He destroyed Triple-A for two months (again), then was called up by Seattle in June where he stuck on the big-league roster for the remainder of the season. No injuries, no DFAs, no minor trades that were mentioned in fleeting fashion at the bottom of an MLB Trade Rumors news and notes post. He was down, then he was up, then the season ended, with some memorable moonshots mixed in along the way. While it was the most convincing sample of big-league success Ford has delivered thus far, his severely limited skillset still cost him his roster spot in November, sending him back out into the baseball wilderness.

The most vital statistics of all for Ford: Five dress shirts, two pairs of pants and some shorts and T-shirts. The journeyman's journeyman played for eight different teams in 2022—four major and four minor—as he continued his personal quest to live in the same place for more than two consecutive weeks. It's a common lamentation, and not untrue, that we'll never know what guys like this would do with regular playing time. But in Ford's case, the answer is pretty clear: The real journey he needs to make is back in time to a previous era. He's a fastball hitter who'll sit the bat on his shoulder until he gets a fastball count, and he’ll make an out if he doesn't. His career splits are illuminating, as he's assembled a .987 OPS when ahead in the count and a .324 mark when behind in it. Now that seemingly half the pitchers in the league use a breaking ball as their primary weapon—and with little room for the lefty-killing pinch-hitter—Ford is likely doomed to measure out the rest of his career in stops made at the Hudson News.

Mike Ford has a history degree from Princeton and hits the ball very hard when he makes contact, but if he doesn't figure out how to make consistent contact with major-league off-speed stuff it's his playing career that's going to be history.

Ford, like the other big-leaguer named Mike who hails from New Jersey, grew up in a suburb that’s actually closer to Philadelphia than it is to New York City. Unless Ford is also an Eagles fan (instead of a Giants fan), that's about where the similarities begin and end.