Blue Jays fixed Ty France's swing, but will watch him cash in with nothing to show for it

The Toronto Blue Jays helped Ty France figure out what was wrong at the plate, and now another team is about to benefit. France says it was hitting coach David Popkins who finally pinpointed the problem during his short stint in Toronto in 2025.

“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.’”

Now, that fix is about to pay off for someone else.
According to MLB Trade Rumors, the free agent first baseman is drawing interest from multiple teams and could sign quickly.

It's easy to see why. France hit .295/.363/.502 with 21 home runs and led San Diego Padres hitters (with at least 500 plate appearances) with a team-best 141 wRC+. After signing a minor league deal with the Padres last winter, France was arguably playing on the best "team friendly" deal in the majors.

He posted a career high 3.6 fWAR and 47.4 percent hard-hit rate. He also followed his 2025 AL Gold Glove with another strong defensive season at first base. MLB Trade Rumors ranks him 23rd on its Top 50 Free Agents list and projects a two-year, $32 million deal, which would roughly triple his career earnings. He also didn't receive a qualifying offer, so signing him won't cost a team a draft pick.

The Blue Jays employed France for half a season in 2025. They picked France up from the Twins at the 2025 trade deadline, and he mostly served as a bench bat. He hit .277 with one home run in 37 games and appeared in two World Series games.

Blue Jays injuries in 2026 would have given Ty France an opportunity to play

With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. entrenched at first base, the Blue Jays let France hit the open market that offseason and he signed with San Diego in February. It hardly felt like a franchise-altering decision at the time but looking back now it certainly stings.

France had more home runs than every Blue Jay except Kazuma Okamoto, and Toronto's offence ranked 28th in the majors in home runs and OPS. But that's not where the only hindsight factor comes in to play here.

Anthony Santander's shoulder surgery was announced on February 10, just days before France's minor league deal with the Padres became official. Santander missed the entire 2026 season, and Toronto watched a potential power bat leave. If the Blue Jays had known sooner that Santander was gone for the year, maybe they could have convinced France to stick around as George Springer's backup at DH, with the added bonus of first base insurance for Guerrero.

It might sound crazy to offer a back up role to a guy who put up the numbers that France did, but remember, the Padres got him on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He was behind Gavin Sheets, Miguel Andujar, Nick Castellanos and Jake Cronenworth on the depth chart. Yet, he rose above all of them to claim a starting role.

Nobody could have predicted a career year from France, but given the injury to Santander, the down year from Guerrero and Springer's inconsistencies in the early part of the season and you don't have to squint too hard to see where France would have fit on this roster.

France looks like he's about to cash in on his biggest contract yet. And while his absence doesn't necessarily hurt the Blue Jays since they also received Louis Varland in the initial trade with the Twins, he's certianly a player that could have helped them in 2026.

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