An old friend has signed on with an American League foe.
Former New York Yankees first baseman Mike Ford has landed a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins that includes an invitation to MLB spring training, as MLB network insider Jon Morosi reported on Thursday.
Ford is a New Jersey native that played his college ball in the Ivy league at Princeton University before signing with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 2012.
If Ford breaks camp with the Twins, the AL central team will be his seventh club across six seasons in the big-leagues.
Ford came up to make his major league debut with the Yankees back in 2019 and immediately showed promise at the plate. The left-handed bat slugged a total of 12 home runs in his first 50 games in pinstripes that year.
However, Ford’s playing time was limited following his rookie campaign and the Yankees ultimately traded him to the AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays for outfield prospect Aldenis Sanchez in June of 2021.
Ford did not appear in a major league game the rest of the year and was claimed off waivers by the Washington Nationals two months into his time in the Rays’ organization.
In 2022, Ford played for four different teams including the Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta Braves. Ford batted just .206 with a .615 OPS and three homers combined across 50 games in ’22.
Ford’s best year in the majors came in 2023, where he slashed .228/.323/.475 with a .798 OPS, 16 homers and 34 RBI for the Mariners in a career-high 83 games.
Last season, Ford played in just 17 big-league games for the Cincinnati Reds. He did, however, slash .297/.381/.539 with six homers for the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate in 105 at-bats in 2024. He also played in 41 games for the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan’s Eastern League.
Ford will turn 33-years-old in July and holds a career slash line of .205/.298/.402 with a .700 OPS, 37 homers and 89 RBI in 251 major league games.