Yes, he won the 2025 gold glove for first base. It was based on his time in both Toronto and Minnesota.
Jays 2026 Thread
- Thread starter bggolfingmaniac
- Start date
The Padres might have a full 40 man roster. He's have to be included, if he'd been signed to a Major League deal.
When veteran players are signed to minor league deals, typically the contract states a minimum salary while playing in the minors, a different salary in the majors, and a number of opt out dates where the player can declare himself a free agent if he doesn't make the team out of spring training, or if he thinks he should be promoted, but hasn't been.
He's also an insurance policy in case the Padres have an injury to a first baseman during spring training, or a potential trade chip, if another team does.
Which will probably happen sometime in the next couple of months. At the moment, spots on their 40 man roster are more valuable. Many teams will have non-roster Invitees at spring training. Some of them are top prospects without enough professional experience that they must be added to the 40 man roster. Others are veterans like France who lost the game of musical chairs when teams spent their off season budget.
Which of these scenarios makes more sense to you, from a business perspective:
1) Signing Ty France to a guaranteed Major League contract, even though you already have a veteran and a top prospect at first base, (just in case you need him), and designating for assignment a former top pitching prospect who missed last season because of Tommy John surgery.
or
2) Trading a couple of AAA depth minor league non-prospects for France if and when you need him, if San Diego doesn't? Depending on what you flip, San Diego might even pay most of his salary.
I think you're undervaluing the fringe spots on the 40 man roster.
Ty France career stats
France has some value, but he's not good enough to play regularly for a contender. Entering his age 31 season, he's unlikely to get better.
He took a substantial pay cut last year, and if he did have a decent year in 2026, he'd be Arbitration 3 eligible next year, meaning that a team would likely have to overpay him to retain his services for 2027.
Cavan Biggio is a good example of this. He produced enough to have value when he was being paid less than $3 Million per season. He didn't improve enough to be worth more than that once he had enough service time for Arbitration 3. Davis Schneider will be in the same boat in a couple of years. Teams need to have a few guys being paid dick on the Major League roster to offset the cost of their stars. If a team had 26 veteran Major League players all earning $10 Million per season, they would definitely flirt with a 100 loss season.
Consider the homeless man picking up discarded items and adding them to his shopping cart. The elephant statue with one ear partially broken off may have some value, but probably not as much as the space it occupies, which could otherwise be used to hoarde something else of greater value.
