As the 2024 MLB season comes to a close, with less than a month left, we have seen the Cincinnati Reds playoff hopes dwindle and wither like a dead flower. However, the Reds might have acquired one of the best second half pickups in all of baseball history.
On July 29, the Reds acquired Ty France from the Mariners in exchange for some money and minor league catcher, Andruw Salcedo. Although the Reds have little to no chance of making the playoffs, France has been one of few bright spots for the Reds post all-star break.
The California native was initially drafted by the San Diego Padres back in 2017, but he really got his career started in Seattle where he was selected to an All-Star game in 2022. He had 20 big flies, 83 runs batted in (RBIs) and batted .274. Over his five year career with the Seattle Mariners he averaged a .266 batting average with 60 homers and 258 RBIs. However, he has had his struggles over the last few years batting below average with a .250 mark in 2023 and batting .233 before being acquired by the Reds in late July.
Joining the Reds on July 29, there weren’t high expectations for the new first baseman. The Reds have had a lackluster first basemen for the whole year, so when they traded for another struggling player, the expectations, of course, weren’t very high.
However, defying all odds, in the limited 35 games he has played for the Reds, he has hit an impeccable .314 and an even more impressive .845 on base percentage (OPS) which is about 100 points over the average MLB hitter.
Even more impressive, over the last 30 days he has been the second most productive hitter in the MLB, only second behind Luiz Arraez. Over these days he has slugged 28 hits, two of which being homers, walked seven times, and batted in 11 runs.
His best performance, however, was against the Astros’ Justin Verlander in which he went 4-4 with a double and an RBI, the beginning of his dominant series. Not only has France just been dominant, but he has also been clutch.
During the most recent affair with the Atlanta Braves, France came up with a clutch double, scoring the only run of the game and giving the Reds the lead in a 1-0 game. Similarly, on the fifth, the first basemen came up with a clutch seventh inning home run to give the Reds a 1-0 lead against the Astros. To go along with his hot bat, France has also shown that he can flash the leather with some amazing diving plays to steal away hits from the opposing team. The Reds especially need a good defender such as France because they are fourth worst in errors per game with 0.63 errors a game.
So, as the 2024 MLB season comes to a close and teams start to make final pushes to make the playoffs, there is little hope for the Reds. There is still a chance that the Reds could win out and squeak into the wildcard, but the chances of that are little to none. Even so, if the Reds miss out on the playoffs once again, the Tour de Ty France has just started.
