The Twins made their recent signing of Ty France to a big league deal official earlier today, and manager Rocco Baldelli made it clear to reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune) today that their new addition is taking over as the club’s regular first baseman.
“He’s going to play a lot,” Baldelli said, as relayed by Nightengale. “That’s really the best way of saying it. The kind of hitter that he is, this isn’t a platoon situation. I think he’s going to play.”
The Twins spent the majority of the offseason hoping to find a steady presence at first base after Carlos Santana departed for the division-rival Guardians in free agency, and now it appears they’ll turn to France to be just that. Even as France is coming off a down season in 2024, it’s not hard to understand why they decided to make that bet. After a lackluster rookie season with the Padres back in 2019, France broke out in 2020 and was traded to the Mariners midseason. He went on to have a strong three-year run in Seattle where he slashed .285/.355/.443 (129 wRC+). He made occasional cameos at both second and third base but mostly settled in as the club’s regular first baseman, even earning an All-Star nod at the position in 2022.
Unfortunately, France began to struggle after that. Though he played in 158 games for the Mariners in 2023, his production was only pedestrian as he hit just .250/.337/.366 with a 105 wRC+. Five percent better than league average isn’t bad, but also falls below expectations for an everyday player at a bat-first position for a contending club. It seemed as though France’s disappointing 2023 may just have been a flash in the pan early last year, as he entered 2024 hitting a robust .251/.329/.403 (117 wRC+) in his first 61 games of the season. Unfortunately, France suffered a fractured heel in mid-June of last year that sidelined him for two weeks, and he looked like a different player upon his return as he hit just .225/.285/.336 (73 wRC+) the rest of the way last season.
It would hardly be a surprise to hear that France, who entered the season with a career .309 BABIP but managed just a .255 BABIP following his injury, was hampered by the lingering effects of that injury throughout the latter part of the season. France himself acknowledged the role his injured heel may have played in his struggles last year, but didn’t want to entirely blame his injury.
“When you don’t have a foot, it’s hard to do things,” France said, as relayed by Nightengale. “I don’t want to put all the blame on that. There was a lot that went into it. I tried a different style of training that offseason trying to revamp my swing. It didn’t work out the way I thought it would. This offseason, I spent a lot of time just getting back to the basics of things. When I simplify hitting and just get back to being myself, I’m a pretty good hitter.”
With France seemingly being given a shot to prove himself healthy and effective out the gate in 2025, that leaves the Twins’ plans for Edouard Julien and Jose Miranda in question. The pair are headed into their age-26 and -27 seasons, respectively, and each has had significant success in the majors in the past as well as notable struggles. The duo seemed likely to handle first base for the Twins in 2025 without an external addition, but now that France is in the fold as the nominal starter at the spot in the lineup it’s unclear if either Miranda or Julien will have a path to consistent playing time. Both have experience elsewhere on the infield (Miranda primarily at third base, Julien at second) but are questionable defenders at those spots and may be better suited for a first base/DH role.
Of course, even without a clear path to playing time on Opening Day it’s easy to imagine either or both players getting significant reps this year. Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, and Royce Lewis have all struggled to stay healthy during their time with the Twins and trips to the injured list for either Correa or Buxton could open up playing time on the infield for Miranda or Julien to take advantage of. A trade of an established hitter like Willi Castro could change the playing time picture in Minnesota, as could under-performance by either France himself or someone like top prospect Brooks Lee.
The real headline here should be “Minnesota outsources First Base job to France”
Well Stated !!
Oui oui.
How did Ty France luck into this with the awful year he just had?
Lack of better options within the organization + team’s unwillingness to spend on a big bat in free agency
The Twins are cheap. They are not interested in spending what it takes to win.
Maybe the Correa signing is biting them a bit? An obvious stud if healthy but when two major market clubs pass on him after a physical, maybe they both off more than they can handle.
Risk is built in to the Correa contract. Remember it’s significantly less money than the Mets and Giants deals.
The bigger issue is that the front office was working under different payroll restrictions at the time that deal was signed, and had no indication that the number would change. Then, the Pohlads came and asked them to chop $20-30 MM overnight.
Correa and now France. 2/3rds of the starting infield with foot issue(s).
Last I checked, there’s 4 infielders in baseball.
LOL. Math. Oh boy. Not my strong point. So 1/2 the infield with foot issue(s).
The foot issues are so bad they count for 2/3rds.
6 if you count pitchers and catchers (I do).
France has wrist issues from leaning into all those HBPs over the years as well.
12 feet, so bad ones is 1/6th of the infield with podiatry issues.
who cares..just hope hes great so we can ship out Julienn to anyone.
He spent a day at driveline and Twitter went crazy at how good his revamped swing looked. One month into the season, he fell back to his old setup and forgot everything he learned.
Vasquez did the same thing last summer for a month. Hopefully the new hitting coach knows how to use film and a rolled up newspaper to make sure these guys pay attention.
He’s a class guy. Miss him in seattle. He’ll have a better season this year for sure.
its a tough time to be a poverty franchise right now.
it always is, but now also.
According to a portion of the Mariners female fanbase, Ty (a seemingly favorite amongst these ardent followers) had put on a doughy layer of baby fat coming into last season. Perhaps this excess layer contributed as well to his downcast numbers in ’24. He’ll want to impress the Minnesota beauties in the stands to give them something to giggle about so I predict a leaner meaner France with better numbers in 2025. Cheers Ty! Go get Comeback Player of the Year!!!
This guy fractured his heel and they had him back out there in under 2 weeks and then cut him when he slumped? Mariners have been lucky with injuries lately but their players were always getting hurt.
Seattle’s medical and front office are ruthless.
When Ty France and Taylor Trammell got traded to the M’s. Padre fans were upset about giving up so much talent, plus the Franmil and Logan Allen cost to get Taylor in the first place. Mariner fans were excited about Kyle Lewis, Trammell and Kelenic patrolling t-mobile OF for years and Ty France at 3B. Goes to show how prospects will break your heart.
No one you mentioned was the best player in the trade.
If only Lewis was able to stay healthy. He was a special hitter.
Pirates should have been all over this
Under the assumption that he wanted to play for the pirates.
Imagine breaking the heel bone in your foot, and trying to play baseball.
Rooting for Ty. The man can rake when he’s right.
So he hasn’t been right very often ?
Ty’s approach has always been to involve a very “handsy” approach to hitting that requires his hands seemingly waving right over the plate. Unsurprisingly this involves A LOT of HBP, many invariably on those very same hands/arms/shoulders. It does not seem to be a sustainable approach IMHO… :(.
It definitely wasn’t sustainable. He’d many underlying wrist issues that sapped his ability to hit. He had about 2 very good years total.
Going to be a long year!
Short and fat!
I thought the Twins had enough options to where maybe he can sneak in as a platoon bat. This is weird.
Why would they sign him to a non guaranteed deal then immediately hand him the job without contest anyway?
I’ve watched the success and downfall last season primarily in France. He’s a good defender from a team who has the best infield coaches (Seattle). If he’s healthy and got his swing back he might have a bounce back year like Santana did last season.
We’ve come a long way from earlier this off-season France and his agent claiming he’d made a great emergency catcher for someone’s bench