Why 2024 is a big year for new father Ty France
The birth of his first child and some offseason adjustments have Ty France positioned for a bounceback 2024.
Sometimes as baseball fans, we can get trapped in a world where numbers mean too much, and the people behind the numbers don’t mean enough. As I often say on my show, “Baseball is a really hard game.” It can be easy to forget that players are people who go through real-life struggles and that adjustments on the baseball field can’t happen overnight.
One example of this is Mariners first baseman Ty France, who is back in the lineup after the birth of his first child with his wife, Maggie. 2023 was a tough year on the field for France, who saw his wRC+ drop by 21 percent to just 104.
Years full of hand and wrist injuries due to hit-by-pitches had seemingly caught up to the 29-year-old first baseman who just hadn’t looked the same since suffering multiple bumps and bruises during the 2022 campaign. His wRC+ took a sharp nosedive in the second half of that season, and while Seattle made the postseason their first baseman struggled to contribute like he had for much of the previous two seasons.
The struggles continued into 2023, and as the double plays, pop-ups, and lack of success piled up, France searched for answers. He would look like the Ty France of old again for glimpses of time but struggled to maintain the success with any consistency.
Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times has said France wondered if he would be traded, or even non-tendered this offseason. Knowing he needed a change, he followed in the footsteps of his best friend JP Crawford, spending parts of the offseason in Kent, Washington training with Driveline.
France wanted to improve his bat speed and hit the ball harder, attempting to get back to his old ways, or even take his game to a new level. However, this wouldn’t be easy, as the San Diego State product had never really needed a swing overhaul.
It wasn’t easy. The changes were foreign and took a while to see results, but as the offseason went along, France began adapting.
You can find out more about his training regimen at Driveline here.
A text I received about his offseason progress read: “He might just mess around and bang.”
Bang he has.
France’s wRC+ has shot up to 125 early in the season, and even though it’s early the progress is undeniable. His average exit velocity is up to 95.7 MPH from 87.5 in 2023, while his Hard Hit % is up 25 percent.
Those figures aren’t likely to hold over the course of a 162-game season, but the improvements are easy to see. France hasn’t even started elevating the ball whatsoever, mostly hitting sharp ground balls to begin the season. There is still plenty of room to improve here and he knows it.
Early season returns on his offseason work are positive, but the biggest development in his life was the birth of his first child last weekend. This post by his wife says it all.
These players are people first and foremost, and you never know what they are going through off the field.
For all he has been through, these first seven games look like the old Ty France once again. A return to form could make him the most pivotal hitter on the team not named Julio Rodríguez.
2024 is a huge year for Seattle’s first baseman, and adding a little dad strength won’t hurt.
