Ty France may wind up cashing in on the swing fix the Blue Jays helped uncover, and Toronto could be left watching from the sidelines.
France said it was Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins who finally identified what was off during France’s brief time with the club in 2025. In an interview with The Athletic’s Will Sammon, France described the process of trying to get back on track at the plate and the moment the issue became clear.
“It was just like, what do I need to fix?” France recalled of his efforts to improve at the plate during his time with the Blue Jays in 2025 in an interview with The Athletic’s Will Sammon.
“And I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. And so when Popkins told me, ‘Hey, this is what it is,’ and I was able to see almost immediate results, I was, like, ‘OK, I know I’m still the player I was prior to the ’24 season.’”
That adjustment now looks poised to pay off for another organization. MLB Trade Rumors says the free-agent first baseman is getting interest from several teams and could move fast.
The appeal is obvious. France put together a big season with San Diego, hitting .295/.363/.502 with 21 home runs and leading Padres hitters with at least 500 plate appearances with a team-best 141 wRC+. After arriving on a minor league deal last winter, he turned into one of the better bargains in the sport.
His production backed that up. France finished with a career-high 3.6 fWAR, posted a 47.4 percent hard-hit rate and followed his 2025 AL Gold Glove with another strong defensive season at first base.
MLB Trade Rumors has him 23rd on its Top 50 Free Agents list and projects a two-year, $32 million contract, a deal that would roughly triple his career earnings. Because he did not receive a qualifying offer, any team that signs him won’t have to surrender a draft pick.
Toronto had France for only part of 2025 after acquiring him from the Twins at the trade deadline. He mostly filled a bench role, batting .277 with one home run in 37 games and appearing in two World Series games.
The Blue Jays let him reach free agency that offseason with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. locked in at first base, and France ended up signing with San Diego in February. At the time, it looked like a routine roster decision. In hindsight, it carries a lot more weight.
France ended up with more home runs than every Blue Jay except Kazuma Okamoto, while Toronto’s offense finished 28th in the majors in home runs and OPS. The timing makes the miss feel even sharper. Anthony Santander’s shoulder surgery was announced on February 10, only days before France’s minor league deal with the Padres became official, and Santander missed the entire 2026 season.
Had Toronto known earlier that Santander was out for the year, France might have made sense as George Springer’s backup at designated hitter, with first-base insurance behind Guerrero as an added layer. It sounds like a strange fit for a player who just put up those numbers, but the Padres signed him to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, and he still climbed past Gavin Sheets, Miguel Andujar, Nick Castellanos and Jake Cronenworth to win a starting job.
No one could have forecast a season like that from France. But with Santander sidelined, Guerrero coming off a down year and Springer uneven early on, it’s not hard to see how he could have found a role in Toronto.
And since the Blue Jays also got Louis Varland in the original trade with the Twins, he’s certainly a player that could have helped them in 2026.
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