Ty France’s future with the Mariners is uncertain.
On Sunday afternoon, just before they closed out a 6-4 victory over the Houston Astros to salvage a win in the three-game series, multiple Major League Baseball sources confirmed that the Mariners had placed first baseman Ty France on irrevocable outright waivers.
What does that mean?
Well, over the next 48 hours, every MLB team will have a chance to claim France and add them to their active 26-man roster. They will also have to pay what is left of his 1-year, $6.775 million contract for the 2024 season.
If Frances goes unclaimed, the Mariners could leave him on the active roster or they could designate him for assignment, removing him from the 40-man roster and outright him to Triple-A Tacoma as a minor league player. Since France has accrued more than five years of MLB service time, he can refuse the outright assignment to the minor leagues and become a free agent with the Mariners still having to pay the entire contract for 2024. Logically that would make him more attractive to teams looking to take a chance on him. having to only pay the league minimum.
France, who just turned 30 on July 13, has struggled at the plate — like most of the Mariners roster — posting a .224/.313/.351 slash line with 14 doubles, eight homers, 31 RBI, 28 walks and 83 strikeouts in 87 games.
This story will be updated.
