France bounces back big after injury scare

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- When Ty France hit the deck after taking a 94.5 mph fastball off his left hand on Tuesday, T-Mobile Park went silent, his teammates jumped to the dugout’s top rail, and above all, anxiety crept into France’s head. But he put those concerns to rest with his first multi-homer game with the Mariners upon returning on Thursday.

“I thought my wrist exploded,” France said. “The whole area just went numb and you are thinking the worst.”

After all, the Mariners’ first baseman was placed on the IL in each of the past two years with left arm injuries, which contributed to production declines. He also jammed his left wrist when making a diving catch in July 2022 that he played through, hitting .220/.269/.367 (.636 OPS) in his final 56 games after the incident. It made his All-Star season a tale of two halves.

Which brings us to Tuesday’s scare, the reminder of how vital France’s arm health is to his hit tool and how vulnerable the Mariners could be without him.

“I do think we dodged a bullet because that could have been really bad,” manager Scott Servais said. “Any time you get hit in the hand that flush, it can be not good. Luckily, it hit him in the fatty part of the [bottom of the] hand ... Is he 100 percent? I don't know about that, only he knows. But he's good enough to play and we want him in there.”

Utility man Sam Haggerty filled in admirably at first base on Wednesday and made a few athletic plays. But Haggerty wouldn’t be the long-term answer had France’s issue lingered; that would’ve likely been either lefty-hitting Mike Ford or righty Jake Scheiner, both at Triple-A Tacoma, and the decision would be based on matchups.

But that’s getting ahead, given that France swung for 30-45 minutes in the cage less than 24 hours after Tuesday’s incident and that he had full range of motion in his left wrist.

“It was a huge sigh of relief when I found out it was just a bruise,” said France, who is now sporting a pad tailor molded to his hand. “It could have been a lot worse, so I'm definitely happy with where we're at.”

Just as relevant was timing. Earlier Tuesday, France crushed a 420-foot, go-ahead homer that proved decisive in a 3-2 win. His slash line of .261/.341/.380 (.722 OPS) is down from his standards, especially the slugging percentage, which is 52 points below his career mark. But France has turned a corner this month, headlined by a 14-game hit streak from May 3-17, when he slugged .450, which immediately followed seven straight hitless games.

“Mechanically, I felt fine,” France said. “It was just, I was missing a lot of good pitches to hit and fouling them off. And I think it just came to my contact point. I was catching a lot of stuff deep and kind of just mis-hitting a lot of balls. So the last, I'd say, probably week or so, in my early work and batting practice, just trying to focus on catching the ball out front more and giving me a chance to compete on those harder fastballs.”

Indeed, France’s 83.8% contact rate for the season is slightly ahead of J.P. Crawford’s 83.2% for the team high, and he also leads all Mariners at 84.9% in May. For all of Seattle’s strikeout issues this year -- its 25.6% K rate is third-highest in MLB -- he’s the outlier, with a 13.5% clip that paces the team by far and is a drop from his 15.3% last year.

“When I'm on time for the fastball and able to hit the fastball out front, it puts me in a good spot to hit the offspeed stuff,” France said. “So that's when I'm at my best.”

He also leads the team and ranks second in MLB with a whopping eight hit-by-pitches. Only Mark Canha (58 times) has been plunked more than France (56) since France joined the Mariners in September 2020, a byproduct of opposing pitchers keeping him honest, since he’s most effective on the outer half of the plate.

“It's kind of one of those things that's in the back of my mind, but I'm not going to back off the plate,” France said. “I'm not going to change my approach. It's worked for me my entire career.”