Ty France’s 2026 season gave the Padres exactly the kind of stability they didn’t have for much of the year. San Diego opened the first half as one of baseball’s most erratic offenses, then surged into the postseason as the hottest team in MLB, and France was one of the few steady presences in the lineup after arriving on a minor league deal.
That makes the free-agent market around him a little surprising. Spotrac pegs France at more than $16 million per year on a three-year, $49.3 million contract. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel sees something much lighter, projecting him at about $3 million less over just one season.
“As a right-handed-hitting first baseman who's now 32, his profile will hurt him in free agency, but you also need to consider that he was among the luckiest hitters in baseball relative to his expected statistics,” McDaniel wrote.
France’s path back to relevance has been a winding one. He said earlier this season that after the 2025 World Series ended with a Game 7 loss for the Toronto Blue Jays, he was close to walking away from baseball altogether. But he stuck with it, and the decision paid off.
“I still felt like I had something to offer to this game, to a team,” France said via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “I went into spring training with the thought, ‘There’s a chance this could be it.
If I don’t make a team out of camp, I don’t know if I want to go to Triple-A.’ It was just a sink or swim kind of thing.
Thankfully, it worked out.”
France’s connection to San Diego runs deep. He was born in West Covina, played at San Diego State University, and was coached there by the late Tony Gwynn. The Padres originally drafted him in the 34th round in 2015 before trading him to the Seattle Mariners, where he became an All-Star in 2022 and also led MLB in hit by pitches twice during his time there.
Before this reunion with San Diego, France had a .262 career batting average and a .735 OPS across seven seasons. In 2026, he hit .295 with an .865 OPS.
His value showed up in the advanced numbers, too. France posted a 141 Weighted Runs Created Plus, with 100 representing league average, and that ranked fifth among all first basemen in 2026 among players with at least 500 plate appearances.
The one wrinkle is the gap between how he hit and how the underlying numbers viewed him. France’s expected Weighted On-Base Average and his actual wOBA were far apart, and that difference ranks fifth in MLB.
Whether that’s luck, skill, or some mix of both, the Padres know what he brought to their lineup. If his next contract lands closer to McDaniel’s projection, bringing him back in 2027 would be an easy call for San Diego.
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Among the names on the move is Johnson, who logged 134 MLB games for the Padres and had become one of the more familiar holdovers in the organization. The rest of the list includes players who spent the 2026 season at various minor league levels, which is the part that matters most for a club like San Diego, where every bit of upper-level depth can end up relevant before long. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Prospect Kannon Kemp Suddenly Faces A Tough Development Question
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For San Diego, that leaves Kemp in a familiar but tricky spot for a young pitcher trying to get back on track. The raw stuff is still there, which is why he remains worth watching, but the organization now has to sort through what comes next and whether his next step should be more refinement or a different level of competition altogether. [Read more 🡒]
Tatis Just Gave Padres Fans A New Debate About His Value
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The unusual split only adds to the intrigue, because Tatis is now up against a deep field of contenders at both spots and could put himself in Padres record territory if he comes away with one or both awards. For a player whose value has always sparked debate, the nomination underscores how much his versatility has mattered to San Diego this season. The only question left is whether the voters will reward him in one role, both, or leave the Padres waiting to see how the final tally shakes out. [Read more 🡒]