Ty France went into last season trying to be something he’s not, and the results reflected that. Over 535 plate appearances split between the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, he slashed .234/.305/.365 with 13 home runs and a 93 wRC+. Statistically speaking, it was the worst year of his career.
Now with the Minnesota Twins after inking a modest $1M free-agent deal in mid-February, France went into yesterday with numbers more in line with what he did from 2019-2023. A month-plus into the campaign, the 30-year-old first baseman has a 118 wRC+ and a .271/.341/.407 slash line.
How has he rediscovered the better version of himself?
“My swing is simple and compact right now,” France told me prior to an 0-for-4 Friday night that included his being robbed on a diving catch and lining an at-em ball at an infielder. “Instead of trying to do too much, I’m just trying to get in my best position and take a good swing.
“Guys are getting paid for homers and doing damage, so a lot of my training last offseason was geared toward trying to hit the ball in the air and drive the ball,” France added. “I kind of lost touch with what I was best at, which is using the right side of the field just collecting hits. This past offseason was about getting back to the basics and rediscovering who I am as a hitter.”
His batted-ball data reflects the adjustments he’s made. France’s pull rate is not only lower than it was a year ago; it’s the lowest of his career. And while his oppo rate hasn’t increased, his up-the-middle rate is easily a career high. As for the adjustments themselves, they have been physical as well as mental.
“I cleaned up some mechanical stuff,” explained France. “ I’m not letting the ball travel more. My contact point last year was still deep, but I wasn’t in sync mechanically. I was kind of losing my front hip, kind of flying open and causing the barrel to come across the ball, smother it. If you look, you’ll see that my pull-side ground ball rate went up and my pull-side fly ball rate went down.
“It felt like I was cheating to get to balls, kind of worrying about the analytical aspect of it,” continued France. “I’m not a properly-mechanical hitter, I guess you could say. It’s not the prettiest [swing], and I was worried about trying to be in sync and proper. I’d be facing a pitcher and thinking, ‘OK, am I getting in my hip? Am I separating? Am I landing on time? Am I sequencing properly? Am I firing the correct way?’ Doing that and then trying to hit a 95-to-100 mph fastball is nearly impossible. I had to clear that all out, get out of my own head and just get back to playing baseball to the best of my abilities. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Zack Wheat went 0 for 5 against Bob Spade.
Sam Rice went 11 for 23 against Shovel Hodge.
Spike Owen went 12 for 24 against Tom Browning.
Alex Avila went 5 for 6 against Aaron Crow.
Jeff Burroughs went 6 for 13 against Jim Barr.
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Jurrangelo Cijntje is baseball’s most fascinating prospect. Drafted 15th overall last summer by the Seattle Mariners out of Mississippi State University, the 21-year-old native of Gravenhagem, Netherlands sits in the low-90s as a lefty, and flirts with triple digits as a righty. Currently no. 79 on The Board, Cijntje stands a good chance of becoming the best switch-pitcher in history.
That it was the Mariners calling his name on draft day isn’t surprising. Not only does the AL West club place an especially-high value on pitching, they have a well-earned reputation of both unearthing and developing top-shelf arms. Cijntje may be listed at 5-foot-11, but in terms of talent he’s far taller.
“I remember Bill James saying that a player’s value is in his uniqueness,” said Jerry Dipoto, who worked with the godfather of sabermetrics in Boston before going on to become Seattle’s president of baseball operations. “How unique is he to the pool of players? The decision-making process in today’s game, with the variety of different tools we have, allows us to better identify that uniqueness. Instead of looking at a pitcher and simply saying, ‘He’s a small righty,’ we can know why he is so effective. We can identify the valuable qualities within that uniqueness.
“He’s a natural spinner of the ball with both arms,” added Dipoto. “As a righty, it manifests itself with a little bit more ride, and as a lefty with a little bit more run. He’s more likely to register higher spin rates with his fastball as a righty. But his breaking ball has that quality both as a righty and a lefty.”
Would Cijntje qualify as truly unique if he weren’t a switch-pitcher?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” replied Dipoto. “But if you’re just a righty and are as athletic as he is, with a mid- to upper-90s fastball that rides at the top, a sinker at the bottom, and a higher-revolution breaking ball that breaks bats, that’s pretty noticeable. I guess you’d say it’s unique.”
Cijntje is debuting professionally this year with the Low-A Everett AquaSox and has allowed 17 hits and 15 runs over 22-and-a-third innings. He’s walked 17 and fanned 24.
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A quiz:
The Minnesota Twins have had three Cy Young Award winners. Jim Perry (1970) and Johan Santana (2004 and 2006) are two. Who is the third? (A hint: He won 20 or more games with two different teams over the course of a 15-year career.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Brett Phillips has signed with the independent American Association’s Cleburne Railroaders with plans to continue his career as a pitcher. The 30-year-old outfielder made five mop-up appearances while playing for five MLB teams, primarily the Tampa Bay Rays, from 2017-2023.
Ricky Peters, an outfielder who played for the Detroit Tigers from 1979-1981, and the Oakland Athletics in 1983 and 1986, died last month at age 69 (per Baseball Player Passings). The Arizona State University product recorded 139 of his 255 hits, as well as both of his home runs, in 1980. The first of his round-trippers was a grand slam at Yankee Stadium on May 27 of that year.
Tom Brown, whose MLB career comprised 61 games for the Washington Senators in 1963, died on April 23 at age 84. The Laureldale, Pennsylvania native had a more-accomplished gridiron career, playing for the Green Bay Packers from 1964-1968 and briefly for the Washington Redskins in 1969. Brown was the starting strong safety for the Packers when they won the first two Super Bowls.
Early registration is now open for SABR’s Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, which will be held in Louisville from August 7-9. More information can be found here.
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The answer to the quiz is Frank Viola, who won a Cy Young Award with the Twins in 1988 after going 24-7 with a 2.64 ERA. Viola went 20-12 with the New York Mets in 1990.
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Marcelo Mayer is seemingly major-league ready, but with a healthy Trevor Story holding down their mutual position in Boston, the 22-year-old shortstop is playing a waiting game in Triple-A. With exposure to other spots in mind, he’s also playing games at second and third base. Worcester manager Chad Tracy was asked which of the alternate positions he’s looked better at.
“Right now, he looks more comfortable at second than at third,” Tracy said earlier this week. “I think he’s been fine at all three, but I think he’s really trying to cut distance at third base on throws. It’s just a different angle. You pick it up and look across, so sometimes you take an extra step. That takes time to get used to. Second is still in the middle of the field, so his comfort playing in the middle carries over there just fine. And obviously he’s been great at short. We have to keep exposing him to both of those.”
Mayer isn’t the only infielder being moved around. Tracy explained that each of Mayer, Vaughn Grissom, and Nick Sogard are playing one of their non-primary positions at least once a week. In Mayer’s case, that means a game at second, a game at third, and the remainder at short.
Who orchestrates the who-plays-where-when?
“It’s my call,” Tracy said to my inquiry. “The number of days per week, or what they want done, is from the front office. They get together and say, ‘This is what we’d like to have happen,’ and then I make the decisions on how and when.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iori Yamasaki has made five starts for NPB’s Tokyo Yomiuri Giants and has yet to allow a run. The 26-year-old right-hander is 4-0 with a 1.08 FIP and a 24.6% strikeout rate over 35 scoreless innings. He went 10-6 with a 2.81 ERA last year.
Teruaki Sato leads all NPB hitters with 10 home runs. The 26-year-old Hanshin Tigers third baseman is slashing .284/.339/.670 with a 230 wRC+ over 118 plate appearances. He has 94 home runs and an .802 OPS over four-plus NPB seasons.
Lewín Diaz leads all KBO hitters with 11 home runs. Now in his second season with the Samsung Lions, the 28-year-old erstwhile Miami Marlins first baseman is slashing .305/.350/.618 with a 154 wRC+ over 143 plate appearances.
Seo Hyeon Kim has nine saves and a 0.54 ERA over 18 appearances for the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles. The 20-year-old right-hander has allowed six hits and eight walks, and has a 24.6% strikeout rate over 16-and-two-thirds innings.
Chieh Hsien Chen is slashing .305/.383/.453 with two home runs in 107 plate appearances for the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. The 31-year-old outfielder is a .342/.418/.448 hitter over 10 CPBL seasons.
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Shane Smith has been a find for the Chicago White Sox. Selected first overall in last winter’s Rule 5 draft from the Milwaukee Brewers organization, the 25-year-old right-hander has a 2.23 ERA over six starts. He’s been the best pitcher on a not-very-good team.
The pitchers who were taken third and fourth overall (Liam Hicks, a catcher, went second) have both taken their lumps.
Garrett McDaniels, a 25-year-old left-hander who came into the year having made just two appearances above A-ball, has allowed 13 hits, eight walks, and eight runs over 10-and-two-thirds innings with the Los Angeles Angels.
Noah Murdock, a 26-year-old right-hander who split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, has allowed 23 hits, 19 walks, and 23 runs over 15 innings with the [don’t call us Sacramento] Athletics.
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FARM NOTES
Slade Caldwell is slashing .300/.510/.529 with two home runs and a 189 wRC+ over 101 plate appearances with the Low-A Visalia Rawhide. The 18-year-old, left-handed-hitting outfielder was drafted 29th overall last year by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of Jonesboro, Arkansas’s Valley View High School.
Bennett Thompson is slashing .356/.500/.492 with one home run and a 186 wRC+ over 76 plate appearances for the Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats. The 22-year-old catcher was drafted in the 13th round last year by the Cleveland Guardians out of Oregon State University.
Raudi Rodriguez is slashing .306/.412/.529 with one home run and a 153 wRC+ over 103 plate appearances for the Low-A Inland Empire 66ers. The 21-year-old outfielder in the Los Angeles Angels organization leads the minors with seven triples, and he has stolen six bases without being caught.
Sean Linan has a 1.40 ERA to go with 45 strikeouts and just six walks over 25-and-two-thirds innings for the Low-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. The 20-year-old right-hander was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Cartagena, Colombia in 2022.
Gage Jump has a 2.74 ERA to go with 37 strikeouts and just five walks over 23 innings for the High-A Lansing Lugnuts. The 22-year-old southpaw was drafted in the second round last year by the Oakland Athletics out of LSU.
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Bligh Madris has faced some good arms over the first month of the minor-league season. Asked which of them has most impressed him, the Toledo Mud Hens first baseman/outfielder didn’t name an individual, but rather an entire pitching staff.
“Indianapolis had a great staff,” Madris said of Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate, which hosted Detroit’s from April 15-20. “They had a great starting five that week. Every arm, including the bullpen, was above average. They were all around 18-plus inches of vert — a lot of ride, a lot of hop on their heaters. You really had to push them down in the zone.”
Bubba Chandler, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, and Carson Fulmer made up Indianapolis’s rotation. The first of that group impressed Madris with more than just his high-octane heater.
“Bubba Chandler has the new changeup,” said the 29-year-old slugger, who has big-league time with the Tigers, Pirates, and Houston Astros. “They’re calling it a splinker, like [Paul] Skenes’s, and he was throwing it 93-94 [mph]. He’s impressive. I’d seen him when I was Pittsburgh and he was a younger two-way guy. His athleticism was incredible; you could tell that he could have been a quarterback at Clemson. He’s always had a lot of raw potential, and now he’s defining himself as one of the best prospects in baseball.”
Chandler has a 1.42 ERA and a 39.6% strikeout rate over 25-and-a-third Triple-A innings.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Mike Squires is one of the few left-handed throwers to wear the tools of ignorance in a major league game. A first baseman with the Chicago White Sox from 1975-1985, Squires squatted behind the dish in the ninth inning of an 11-1 loss to to Milwaukee Brewers on today’s date in 1980, and two days later he did the same in a 12-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Over the past century, MLB’s only other left-handed-throwing catchers have been Benny Distefano (parts of three games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1989) and Dale Long (parts of two games with the Chicago Cubs in 1958). Like Squires, Distefano and Long were first basemen by trade.
And then are his other positional cameos. In 1983, Squires played an inning at third base, and in 1984 he took the mound and retired the only batter he faced. Less notable, yet worth mentioning, is that he also made brief appearances in left, center, and right field. As for his true position, Squires was an excellent defender who was awarded a Gold Glove in 1981. He wasn’t known for his bat. The Kalamazoo, Michigan native logged just 411 hits and a 78 wRC+.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
MLB.com’s Dan Cichalski wrote about players who have homered in the most ballparks in a single season.
MLB.com’s Michael Clair wrote about baseball in Croatia.
Thirty years ago, Hideo Nomo paved the way for Ichiro and Ohtani to thrive. Evan Drellich wrote about it at The Athletic (subscription required).
The Tampa Bay Rays groundskeepers are having to adjust to life outside the dome. Hannah Keyser has the story at Front Office Sports.
Ham Iburg, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1902, was said to have “the slowest ball ever hurled in the majors or higher minors.” Bill Lamb profiled him for SABR’s BioProject.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The Cleveland Guardians have won 13 of 16 games against the Minnesota Twins since the start of last season. The dominant stretch against their division rivals includes five walk-off wins and three extra-inning wins.
Tampa Bay’s Shane Baz allowed four two-baggers to Kansas City Royals batters on Thursday. Going into the game, the Rays right-hander had gone 12 consecutive starts without allowing either a double or a triple, something a traditional starter hadn’t done since at least 1901 (per Tampa Bay radio broadcaster Andy Freed).
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder/first baseman Jake Bauers has made four one-inning pitching appearances this season and hasn’t been charged with a run. Last season, the left-handed thrower made four mop-up appearances and allowed a pair of runs over runs innings.
The Detroit Tigers entered the month with the best record in the American League. The last time they boasted the AL’s best record on May 1 was in 1984.
Alan Trammell hit 185 home runs playing for the Tigers. He had 186 wins managing the Tigers.
On today’s date in 1971, Jim Holt homered in the tenth inning to give the Minnesota Twins a 4-3 walk-off win over the New York Yankees. Rod Carew sent the game into extras by homering with two out in the bottom of the ninth. The seven-time batting champion went deep just twice all season.
On today’s date in 1991, Chris James went 4-for-5 with two home runs and nine RBIs as the Cleveland Indians routed the Oakland Athletics 20-6. James and Lonnie Chisenhall (2014) co-hold the franchise’s single-game RBI record.
Players born on today’s date include Ryan Jorgensen, a catcher who went 3-for-20 while getting cups of coffee with three teams across the 2005-2008 seasons. Two of Jorgensen’s three hits were home runs, which came with the Cincinnati Reds.
Also born on today’s date was Rick Leach, who quarterbacked the Michigan Wolverines from 1975-1978 before turning his full attention to baseball and playing for a quartet of MLB teams from 1981-1990. An outfielder who saw the bulk of his action with the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays, Leach logged 460 hits, including 18 home runs. He’s a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Slim Love went 17-12 with a 3.82 ERA for the Dallas Steers in 1927. The Texas League club was managed by Snipe Conley and Turkey Gross.
