Padres notes: Ty France is back being himself at plate; Yuki Matsui a day away; Giolito likely two starts away

SAN FRANCISCO - Ty France has rediscovered who he is.

"It has been a two-year process of trying to find my swing," he said recently.

The journey began four teams ago, before he returned to the club with which his career began. This is not how he planned it. He seemed headed somewhere else.

"I was on such a good path and trajectory, setting myself up nicely for a great free agency," France said over the weekend. "And then to have a couple bad years, it just kind of wiped that clean. Everybody’s journey isn’t the same. Everybody’s road is different. But, hey, I’m still playing baseball.”

That's right. And playing a lot.

France was not in the lineup Monday against the Giants, but he had started seven of the previous nine games at first base.

Over the past 12 games in which he has had a plate appearance, he is batting .333 (14-for-42) with two doubles, a triple and three home runs.

What he is doing is reminiscent of who France was while playing for the Mariners in 2022, the season he made the American League All-Star team and hit .274 with a .774 OPS.

That concluded a three-year stretch in which he posted 6.8 fWAR playing for the Mariners and Padres, who sent him to Seattle as part of the trade for Austin Nola at the 2020 trade deadline. The Padres drafted France out of San Diego State in the 34th round in 2015, and he made his debut with the team in 2019.

After his offensive numbers, particularly his average and home runs, flagged in 2023, he went to work in the offseason trying to remake his approach and increase his bat speed. He dove into the metrics and got into understanding the biomechanics.

And he got worse.

"I tried to make myself a mechanically perfect hitter, and that’s just not me," France said. "I think the stuff is really great, and it works for guys who can interpret that and put it in their game. It just wasn’t for me. It ended up just muddying the water."

France hit .234 with a .670 OPS for the Mariners and Reds in 2024 and .257 with a .681 OPS for the Twins and Blue Jays in ‘25.

This past winter was going to be the first time he was eligible for free agency.

Had he maintained something like the numbers he had across his first three seasons, along with the Gold Glove he won in 2025, the 31-year-old France could have been in line for a decent multi-year deal.

Instead, after two straight seasons of being traded at the deadline, he signed a minor-league contract with the Padres as spring training began with the promise of a $1.35 million salary if he made the opening-day roster.

A strong spring and the oblique injury that slowed Sung-Mun Song got France to San Diego.

France spent last season tinkering with his swing. There were hints he was perhaps getting back to being productive, including his hard-hit rate and expected slugging percentage returning to early-career levels.

He spent the winter focusing his work on making his batting cage reps as competitive as possible and getting back to the feel he had in the batter's box during his best seasons.

After starting two of the Padres' first 12 games, going 1-for-11 in that stretch, France started hitting the ball hard and getting hits.

He has now established himself as the right-handed-batting platoon option at first base. And more than that, actually. Of his 15 starts, nine have come against right-handed pitchers.

So it might have been different. He might have made more money.

France acknowledged that is not nothing. But he shrugged and smiled too.

"I think that is part of growing up in this game and maturing in this game is understanding, you know, it’s not gonna be perfect all the time," he said. "As much as you want it to be and as hard as you try to make it, you’re gonna have your bumps and bruises. You've just got to roll with the punches and not worry about it and get after it the next day."

Notable

• Yuki Matsui was at Oracle Park on Monday and will be reinstated from the injured list Tuesday. The left-handed reliever, who was shut down during spring training with an oblique strain, spent the past month on a rehab assignment. A clause in his contract prohibits him from being optioned to the minor leagues.
• Lucas Giolito will start Tuesday for Double-A San Antonio. He is expected to throw around 75 pitches in what could be his second-to-last minor-league outing before joining the Padres rotation. The right-hander signed a one-year contract on March 22.

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 6:51 PM.