Tuesday, September 22

SAN DIEGO -- Priorities, right?

Ty France has an outside shot at becoming the first Padre to win a batting title in a full season with the team since Tony Gwynn, the man who once coached him at San Diego State. He’s in the midst of a resurgent season -- the type that might earn him down-ballot MVP votes.

France’s name would be plastered all over the league’s leaderboards... if he qualified. And for most of the second half, France was on pace to qualify -- he just needed to keep racking up plate appearances.

Except for one thing: A couple weeks ago, France’s wife Maggie gave birth to twin girls. And when that happened, those league leaderboards took a backseat to France's paternity leave. (Nevermind that France would currently qualify, if he'd received the 14 plate appearances taken by Padres' cleanup hitters that weekend.)  

“I’m a really big family man,” France said. “It was nice to get away from the game for a few days and spend that time with my wife and kids. Obviously, we’re in a tight race. But baseball’s not forever. Family is. So, it was refreshing and nice to be able to be there with her and spend that time with them.”

Good call, Ty. Here’s the thing: Whether France and his .301 batting average qualify in the National League batting race or not, his story is a remarkable one. The very reason France is currently a handful of plate appearances short of qualifying is because the Padres didn't sign him to be an everyday player.

France inked a Minor League deal in Spring Training, then had to earn his way onto the big league roster. Coming off consecutive sub-.700 OPS seasons, France didn’t receive a Major League offer from any team.

“I still felt like I had something to offer to this game, to a team,” France said. “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.”

Sink or swim, huh? Chalk this season up to “swim.” France is the cleanup hitter in a Padres' lineup loaded with superstars. No, he doesn’t qualify (yet). But if he did, entering play Sunday he would have ranked tied for third in the National League in batting average, tied for third in slugging (.524) and second in wRC+ (147), which is an all encompassing hitting metric.

Those are truly remarkable numbers. In other words, only one NL hitter has been better than France this season: the Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong, the MVP favorite. If you set the requisite plate appearances to 470 -- instead of the required 484 -- France’s name pops up everywhere, right alongside the likes of Crow-Armstrong, the Reds' Elly De La Cruz and the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani.

In the meantime, France has played Gold Glove-caliber defense at first base. All this from a Minor League signing, who wasn’t sure he’d even make it through Spring Training.

“It’s been a lot of fun, watching him prove himself to everybody,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen. “Including myself. At the beginning of the season, I don’t think we saw him as an everyday player, but a solid bench piece that we’d have that would give us a professional at-bat, every time.

“But, he’s been maybe our most important hitter throughout the entire season, our most consistent hitter throughout the entire season.”

And nobody saw it coming. Though France had an inkling that he might be onto something last summer. He was dealt from the Twins to the Blue Jays just before last year’s Trade Deadline. When France arrived in Toronto, hitting coach David Popkins had a suggestion.

Popkins had noticed a subtle change in France’s swing from the earlier part of his career. From 2020-22, France posted a .798 OPS and earned a trip to the All-Star Game in ‘22. During those seasons, France was lifting his hands before his load in his swing. Over the past couple seasons, he was pushing them backward, rather than lifting them.

Of course, it’s no small task to make a swing change on the fly. France needed to drill his new swing (his old swing, really) and make it a habit.

“I’m very grateful for [Popkins] and for that, because I would never have been able to figure that out on my own,” France said. “Then, you’re breaking a bad habit. I needed muscle memory to get out of that bad habit. So I spent all offseason doing that.

“Then, when I got here in the spring, I told [hitting coach Steven Souza Jr.] and the guys, ‘This is what I’m focused on, this is what I’m trying to hammer out.’ They agreed. And they stayed on top of it. Now, here we are.”

Here we are, and France might be the Padres' MVP. He’s regularly delivering moments like Friday (a towering home run to set a career high with 21 overall) and Saturday (a clutch, go-ahead double) in the middle of a pennant race.

“I know how much bringing a championship to San Diego would mean,” France said. “So, to be a part of that would be special. Hopefully, we can just keep this going.”

France would know, playing for Gwynn at San Diego State. France was selected by the Padres in the 34th round of the 2015 Draft. There’s a reason he chose the Padres from a handful of Minor League contracts he was offered.

France has deep ties to the organization. He was called up about a month after Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2019. A third baseman at the time, France had his path to regular playing time blocked when the Padres signed Manny Machado. He was traded to the Mariners the following summer.

That move was ill-advised. But let's just say, the Padres' front office made up for it by adding France on the bargain this winter.

“I’m just so happy for him,” Tatis said. “It’s been a lot of hard work behind his career. He was never the top prospect, never the top guy. It’s great to see him have this year. … I’m just happy we made that signing. For real.”

For real. Where would these Padres be without France? He started the year as a defensive replacement at first base, getting occasional at-bats against lefties. Now he’s anchoring the cleanup spot, hitting between Machado and Jackson Merrill.

“It probably took a little longer than it should’ve, based on how we were trying to make the roster fit,” Stammen said. “But Ty kept his head down and didn’t complain. He was a great teammate. … He just waited his turn and proved it over and over and over and over again that he needed to play.”

Who knows what happens if France gets more at-bats earlier in the season? It’s all hypothetical. Maybe his numbers aren’t what they currently are.

Still, MLB rules stipulate that qualifying hitters need 3.1 plate appearances per team game -- which equates to 502 over the course of a season. France was at 470 entering play Sunday. He’d need about 4 1/2 per game the rest of the way to reach 502.

(When it comes to the batting title, of course, there’s another stipulation for players who fall short of qualifying. If that player would still win the batting title if he went hitless in the missing at-bats, he’s still considered the batting champ. France currently trails Luis Arraez, at .313, by 12 points, so he's a longshot anyway.)

Not that France is keeping tabs too closely. Seriously, who has time for all that math with twin daughters at home and a playoff spot to secure?

“Is there a way? Yeah,” France said. “But I never really thought about it until [the last couple days]. It’s going to take a lot. Everything has to go right. … Let’s just say: 'Play well.'

"And it’ll take care of itself.”

Who has the highest single-season batting average for a qualifying Padres first baseman?

A. Adrián González

B. Wally Joyner
C. Ryan Klesko

D. John Kruk

• The Padres and Yu Darvish have partnered to make a landmark donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego.

• The magic number has dwindled to two, and the Padres are the hottest team in baseball. They can clinch a playoff spot as soon as Tuesday night.

• The Padres might have it all wrapped up well before the weekend. But just in case, they’re reshuffling their rotation.

• Ethan Salas, who walked off the Marlins on Saturday night, is “living the dream.”

• The Padres’ focus has shifted -- from merely reaching the postseason to potentially hosting a Wild Card Series.

B. Wally Joyner

Joyner batted .327 for the Padres during the 1997 season.

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