TODAY: The Twins officially announced France’s deal.
FEBRUARY 11: The Twins are in agreement with infielder Ty France on a one-year contract, pending a physical. It’s a non-guaranteed major league deal that places the Equity Baseball client on the 40-man roster and reportedly pays him at a $1MM rate if he breaks camp with the team. France will fill the roster spot that was recently vacated when Minnesota placed lefty Brent Headrick on waivers and lost him to the Yankees.
France, 30, was an All-Star with the Mariners in 2022 but has seen his production dip over the past two seasons. From 2020-22, the former Padres farmhand mashed at a .285/.355/.443 clip despite playing his home games in perhaps the most pitcher-friendly setting in MLB: Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. Weighting for that disadvantage, wRC+ pegged him at 29% better than average with the bat.
The 2023 season brought about a downturn, but France was still slightly better than average in the box, batting .250/.337/.366. He declined further in 2024, however, hitting just .234/.305/.365. That came despite a midsummer DFA from the Mariners and subsequent landing with the Reds, who play in one of MLB’s top hitters’ parks. It was only 195 plate appearances, but the change in venue didn’t bring about a return to form for France, who’ll now look to bounce back with the Twins.
At his best, France has shown 20-homer pop with plenty of doubles and good bat-to-ball skills. Last year’s decline was in part due to a 21.6% strikeout rate, but from 2021-23, France kept that number down to 16.4%. He doesn’t walk much (career 6.5%), but his contact skills and line-drive approach have typically propped up his batting average and led to solid on-base marks.
Defensively, France has experience at first base, second base and third base, though he’s not a strong option at any of the three spots. From 2021-22, he looked to be improving considerably at first base, drawing positive marks from Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average alike. Those grades slipped in 2023, and defensive metrics panned him as one of the worst defenders in the sport this past season.
Notably, France did miss time with a fractured heel; it stands to reason that could’ve hobbled him at the time of the injury in June and lingered throughout the season. At the time of the injury, France was hitting .251/.329/.403 (117 wRC+). His strikeout rate was up, but the results were still strong overall. Upon reinstatement from the IL just 11 days later, France fell into a deep swoon and batted .220/.285/.336 in a sample of 298 plate appearances.
Adding some right-handed depth to the lineup has been a priority for the Twins this winter. They recently brought in Harrison Bader to both back up Byron Buxton in center field and to serve as a platoon option with lefty-swinging corner outfielders Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner. France adds a second right-handed bat, one who’ll either supplant Jose Miranda as the favorite for reps at first base or perhaps just slot into a multi-player rotation between the infield corners and designated hitter.
Carlos Correa will be the Twins’ primary shortstop, but the rest of the infield is fluid. Royce Lewis is in line for regular time at third base, but the Twins have at least worked him out at second base as well. That’s in part because top prospect Brooks Lee — a natural shortstop — is seen as a better defender than Lewis at the hot corner. The presence of Lewis and Lee has pushed Miranda from third base to first base. The Twins also have second baseman/first baseman Edouard Julien in the mix, though the former top-100 prospect is looking to rebound from a down year at the plate in 2024. Utilityman Willi Castro can play virtually any spot on the diamond. The additions of France and Bader will likely push former top prospect Austin Martin from a bench role to a regular job in Triple-A.
Adding France into the mix only gives the Twins more options and safeguards against potential injury. Speculatively, that depth could also come into play in preparation for a late-offseason trade, though president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said recently that after focusing heavily on the trade market throughout the winter, the Twins saw more paths to upgrade in free agency. That didn’t appear to be in the cards for much of the winter, as the Twins have been up against a serious payroll crunch with the team up for sale, but it seems ownership recently gave the green light to upping the 2025 budget on a series of short-term deals. The Twins have added France, Bader ($6.25MM) and Danny Coulombe ($3MM) in the past week alone.
Phil Miller of the Star Tribune was first on the signing.
Mmm pad thai.
I prefer Pho myself.
At 1 million the Twins scored with France
Doubt he makes the team out of spring its a non gte contract and surely they have a kid in house that can best what he has brought to the table recently
This offseason for the Twins has felt like someone who didn’t realize the deadline for the project was tomorrow and now they’re doing all they can to finish it.
Was thinking more along the lines of the kid in the back of the class that smells a bit, always walks hunched over coming in 30 seconds after the bell rung and who turns in just enough homework to get his C- grade to pass the class
Project? Deadline? Aw crap! Apparently the Mariners front office never got the memo!
Happy for Ty…. despite the declining batting average, France was always a fan favorite while playing in Seattle….. I was actually hoping we might try to resign him to a minor league deal and see if he could make the team…..
“France was always a fan favorite”..France played for the M’s so I watched him play quite a bit. What happened to this guy?
A couple years ago he looked like a + hitter who might hit 20 homeruns and 35 doubles a year.
He never really did much else, but he seemed like a useful hitter just a short while ago.
He also was a pretty good fielder and at one time was supposed to be Seager’s replacement at 3rd but hit so well they needed him in the lineup while Seager was still there so put him at 1st. He now barely play 1st and is probably the slowest player in MLB.
@slund France is OK at best defensively at 1B. Was bad defensively at both 2B and 3B.
He’s solid for about a 3 week stretch, then the rest of the year a black hole.
Just looking for last minute bargains among all the guys who couldn’t find deals before this.
It’s like shopping for a birthday in February by picking over what’s left of the misfit toys that Dollar Whatsit forgot to send to recycling when the post-post-Christmas clearance post-clearance sale sales were over.
Peaked at 27. Twins in the bargain aisle, scratch and dent.
Headrick was a better use of the 40 man imo
“Grocery Outlet Bargain Market”™
This felt inevitable.
The mystery of who signs Ty France has now been solved.
All that’s left is to find out who signs Cufflinx Belgium…
and Handkerchief England
And
Ascot Wales
Cravat Ireland
Will the Twins win or lose with Ty?
Ty goes to the runner-up in the AL Central?
I wouldn’t like it for the long term, but if Detroit gets Bregman, they have to be the favorite in the central. They’ve not only added, but they’re the only team that didn’t subtract. I mentioned that because MLB dot com is saying Bregman will choose between Detroit, Chicago and Boston soon. Then, the rest of the division loses guys and replaces them with guys like this. It was already close competitively before the off-season.
I think it was Rosenthal on TA that posted a graphic showing which teams added or subtracted payroll based on percentage of the previous year…
Detroit already is at 37% increase. The Royals were on the graphic as well…Cleveland and Minnesota were decidedly not so. (Also the White Sox somehow slashed their payroll at among highest rate in baseball, which doesn’t bode well for them avoiding the games worst record)
Of course only like 14 teams actually have a higher payroll than last year…just another sign that the economics of baseball are broken considering you only see a couple of teams each yr in the other Big 3 not have a least a marginal increase in payroll. Hell, it’s mandated by the Cap & Salary Floor. Hmm maybe baseball could use a floor? Just saying
Definitely. Marlins payroll is at something like 64 or 74 million, lol.
Among the Tigers, Cubs and Red Sox, I’m guessing Detroit would be third as Bregman’s choice. If that’s the case, the Tigers might need to offer the longest term contract in order to reel him in.
Reports indicate that the Cubs and Red Sox are more interested in signing Bregman to a higher AAV/shorter term deal. I believe the Cubs have the edge over the Red Sox should Bregman settle for such a deal.
In Boston Bregman might have to switch to 2B with Rafael Devers adamant about remaining at the hot corner. In Chicago, Bregman would stay at 3B with top prospect Matt Shaw reverting back to his “natural” and more “fitting” position of 2B. Cubs incumbent 2B Nico Hoerner is still recovering from October flexor tendon surgery on his right forearm and may not be ready for opening day, especially the early mid-March series vs the Dodgers in Tokyo. Hoerner also holds significant trade value as a high contact, Gold Glove middle infielder who can also steal bases. His 3 yrs/$35M contract extension that runs through 2026 also enhances his trade value.
I think it’ll be the Cubs too. Idky Boston would want him with those two young bucks beating down the door. Possibly as soon as OD. And if Chicago signs him, they can trade Hoerner to Seattle for Castillo.
Surprised the Dodgers didn’t sign him.
Maybe you should pay more attention to baseball instead of the memes?
He’s the best player on the team.
Providing he lands in St Paul, yes
Ty France only plays one IF position, not “multiple”.
He can play at 2B and 3B in addition to 1B. He primarily came up as a third-baseman and played like twice as many games at 3B than at 1B when he was in the minors. He’s also played over 50 games in the majors at both 2B and 3B, so its totally fair to say he could cover one of those positions if needed.
I’m guessing your argument on this is basically that he’s not good defensively at 2B or 3B so those positions shouldn’t count as positions that he can play. I totally agree with you that he’s not good defensively, but honestly he is also not good defensively at 1B either (-12 OAA last year) so I don’t know why you would say he can play 1B but not 2B or 3B. His value comes through his bat not his defense.
Either he plays multiple infield positions (not very well), or he’s just a DH/pinch hitter.
Willi Castro can play “anywhere on the diamond” but at what cost? He had negative DRS at every position last year. Multi-positional flexibility only adds value if you’re not hurting the team defensively to do it.
Being in the ballpark of average helps out a manager a lot. As a twins fan, he’s been fantastic for us the last two years. Ups and downs like any player but a fantastic 10th man
Interesting how they announce the TV direct to customer deal this morning and a player signing this afternoon
@harry I think it has more to do with MLB timeline. Pitchers and catchers are starting to report for teams, Spring Training is just about to really take off, teams are rounding out offers and fringe starting players are done waiting for the ideal team to come knocking.
France off the board leaves Turner, Rizzo, and J.D. Martinez as DH types left playing musical chairs with the possibility of their being no chairs left…
Well I guess they can send Julienn back over to St Paul now right? Pretty please???? I’d rather keep Martin for speed on pinch running.
At first glance, I thought Ty France was popping the finger at the crowd in the photo shown in this article.
He totally was,,,they photo-shopped it. I don’t understand what the big deal is…so he flipped off some fans who yelled “Hey France, you suck more than Otis Nixon when he was 59 !”
Well hey that’s something useful for them. I don’t think Ty is terrible.
Much better option than Turner for sure and possibly better than say a Paul Goldschmidt…especially for $1 million.
This isn’t greasy, but it sure is sneaky. Good move Minnesota
An European international organization !!
First they got an outfielder from Germany.
Now they got an infielder, France.
2 of the more solid Twins hitters in recent history, Polanco and Garver just had all time awful seasons with Seattle. I’m all for giving someone from the team a chance. Their hitting coaches would turn Aaron Judge into a replacement hitter
Don’t forget the park. I think it’s a bigger factor than the coaches.
A baseball website that invariably takes the “he might get it going any day now” template approach to article-writing rather than demonstrating the awareness that “players on average peak at age 26-27 so he’s very probably on his last go-round, Maybe he’ll catch a dead cat bounce.”
C’mon, MLBTR. At least get the basics right.
MLBTR always writes with an optimistic tone, probably because Americans generally like optimists and hate whiners
@Jack Do you need a link for 3rd time showing that statistically players peak between 27-29. That is on average as well, meaning some fall both above and below those ages.
Maybe you can eventually get the “awareness” to do some research before making your assumptions that more often than not are wrong.
The Pohlads skimming the toilet for leavin’s.
Mister FRENCH TICKLER
**guiltily looking around ** “what do you mean?”
I see England I see France
This is so depressing for Twins’ fans. Doing nothing and rolling with the men already on the team would have been better than signing France. Ugh.
Of course Brent Hendrick went to the Yankees
They’ll find away to make him a serviceable left handed reliever in the middle innings .
Good depth move. But would like to ask Twins fans if they believe this rotation will get them to the playoffs: Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, David Festa & Zebby Matthews?
His stats were better on the Reds and yet his OPS+ was 10 points lower. These park adjusted stats are garbage. These ball parks are all regulation with slight differences. Look at Matt Chapman’s stats for the A’s (pitchers park), Blue Jays (hitters park), and Giants (pitchers park). His stats are pretty much identical accross the board and yet OPS+ says that he was bad on the Blue Jays and good for the A’s and Giants at hitting
Well, he’s versatile and gets hit by a lot of pitches. So he has those things going for him.