Top 15 Mariners for 2023: Vive La France... Ty France is our #6 Mariners player

Back when the Mariners made THE TRADE with the Padres, Mariners fans all over started diving in to find out all that they could about the players that were coming back to Seattle. Taylor Trammell was probably the best known one at the time, as he had been a top 100 prospect in baseball. Torrens was a young catcher with potential pop. Andres Munoz was an injured reliever who was rumored to throw legit gas. Lastly there was Ty France and, well... Ty France could hit.

I remember looking at it with a buddy, trying to parse through everyone that was coming to Seattle. France raked in college, hitting .337. Always a good sign. It doesn't always translate, but it's nice to see for sure. From 2015-2018, he hit well in the minors for San Diego as well, usually in the upper 200s, and flashed decent pop in 2018. It was the next number you see that made you stop and pause.

.399.

That was Ty France's batting average in AAA across 76 games and 296 ABs. It's not like he was just spraying singles either. He had an OBP of .477, hit 27 doubles and also 27 home runs. That's insane.

Ty France comes in at #6 on our top 15 Mariners of 2023

The Padres were sending us this guy? Alongside everyone else that I mentioned earlier? Massive win, or at least, that's what it had the potential to be.

Cut to a few years later, and Ty France is one of the best hitters in the majors. A healthy Ty France, that is. It's not just me saying this, either. Before the 2021 season, David Schoenfield of ESPN predicted that Ty France would win the American League Batting Title. You can see that he isn't that far off, as a healthy Ty France hits about .310 since joining the Mariners. Whether it's getting hit by a pitch or a borderline dirty play by a runner coming up the line, France has issues staying healthy.

I'm trying to ride that line of being optimistic while remaining realistic. It can be hard to do, especially when things are looking bright in Seattle, and arguably looking the brightest since... well, the beginning of this millenia. Some of our contributors were in diapers back then, that's how long it has been.

I had France higher than this, but again, it's a collaborative vote from the team here at Sodo Mojo. Some of us are a bit more hopeful than others on how he is going to do. Although, everyone did have him between 4-7 in the voting, which goes behind the scenes a bit to show you just how close it was from 4-8. (A 4.8 average to a 7.2 average). It's a great "problem" to have when you have so many Mariners that are deserving of top spots.

I think we are going to see a great year from Ty France. There is more experience and protection in this lineup than there has ever been, and the Mariners have a chance to put together their first season with 5 or more players (with more than about 200 ABs each) to have an OPS+ of 125+. If that's the case, we are going to have a darn good offense, and a healthy Ty France is going to be a major driving factor in the team's success.