Mariners should reunite with another fan favorite after Jorge Polanco signing

The Seattle Mariners have brought back Jorge Polanco on a one-year contract to play third base, which felt like their first impactful addition of the entire winter. After a truly quiet stretch for Seattle, they have now added two infielders recently in Polanco and veteran Donovan Solano. After these two moves, though, there is still an opening for a right-handed hitting first baseman to prevent Luke Raley from playing there every day.

An option to fill that righty role at first base is former Mariner Ty France, who is still available on the free agent market. He is in a similar spot to Polanco; a former Mariner on the market without a home who had a disappointing season last year. The Mariners must believe that Polanco will bounce back in 2025, so they could take a chance on France rebounding as well. He did make an All-Star team a few years back, has experience playing in T-Mobile Park, and shouldn’t be too expensive.

At 29 years old last year, France was not as good as he was expected to be and was cut midseason, but his numbers were not as terrible as some of the other disappointing players in recent seasons, such as Kolten Wong. France put up a .223/.312/.350 slash line in 88 games with a 97 OPS+. That is not that far below average, and the real problem was that there was no power there, as evidenced by the .350 slugging percentage and only eight home runs. From the first base position, that’s unacceptable.

However, at this point in the offseason and with likely only a few million dollars remaining in the Mariners’ offseason budget, France is not a bad platoon/bench option. The Mariners are likely to have Raley play a majority of the season at first base at this point, but last year, Raley struggled to hit left handed pitching.

Mariners and Ty France reunion makes sense after bringing back Jorge Polanco

Right now, if the Mariners wanted to have a righty first baseman on the bench, that would likely be Tyler Locklear, who did not play well enough to be guaranteed a roster spot in 2025 during his short stint in the big leagues last year. The Mariners could use France in a part-time role to face those lefties and be a guy who can hopefully just keep the lineup moving.

France was also a fan favorite in previous seasons, and was a fun player to watch, spraying the ball around the ballpark. Unfortunately, his struggles last season put a premature end to the relationship. If he costs something reasonable like two or three million dollars, he could help raise the floor of the lineup at a low cost and low risk. If he doesn’t bounce back, then they could move on midseason again and go in another direction.

However, perhaps a season with Edgar Martinez as the hitting coach could help the former Mariner.