Seattle Mariners Make Major Roster Decision with Former All-Star
With nine days to go before the trade deadline, the roster dominoes started to fall on Sunday for the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners placed first baseman Ty France on irrevocable outright waivers, according to a tweet from Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.
Ty France has been placed on irrevocable outright waivers. If a team claims him, he is theirs. If he clears, he is still with the Mariners and can be outrighted to the minors. Because of service time, he can refuse the outright assignment
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 22, 2024
The decision seems to be with the intention of moving on from France, but it's not quite as simple as that.
Per Divish, if a team claims France off waivers — then the sixth-year player will have his new home. If not, Seattle could make the decision to outright France to the minors. But France could refuse the assignment due to service time. If he does refuse the assignment, he'd become a free agent. France is owed about $2.5 million for the rest of the year, so any claiming team would owe him that money.
Divish quote-tweeted the report with an example of the Toronto Blue Jays doing this with Kevin Kiermaier. He was placed on waivers by Toronto on July 13 but wasn't claimed by another team and is still with the Blue Jays as a result.
The difference between Kiermaier and France was that the former was placed on revocable waivers — meaning he could have been taken off if another team claimed him. There's not that option with France.
France came to the Mariners in a trade with the San Diego Padres on Aug. 31, 2020, that also netted Seattle 2024 All-Star Andres Munoz.
France originally seemed like he would remain a key contributor in the Mariners' offense for years to come. He batted .291 with 18 home runs and 73 RBIs in 2021 and hit 20 home runs and 83 RBIs at a .274 clip in 2022. He was an All-Star that season.
His production has tapered off since. He's hitting .223 this season with eight home runs and 31 RBIs. He has a -0.9 dWAR (defensive wins above replacement) which ties him as the worst defender on the team this season with Mitch Haniger.
Seattle won't know if France is claimed "for a couple days," per Divish.
It seems as if Tyler Locklear will be up from Triple-A Tacoma to take his place at some point, if not as early as Monday against the Los Angeles Angels.
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