{"id":576270,"date":"2026-02-16T22:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/576270\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:03:45","slug":"padres-sign-aztec-for-life-ty-france-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/576270\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres sign Aztec for Life, Ty France to minor league deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/eastvillagetimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/France-SF.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-62544\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/France-SF-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a>Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego Padres signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/francty01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ty France<\/a> to a minor league contract.<\/p>\n<p>On a mission to acquire depth, the San Diego Padres made their fourth signing in the last few days.<\/p>\n<p>Ty France was signed to a minor league deal and is expected to compete for a job on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>France joins the additions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/casteni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Castellanos<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cannigr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Griffin Canning<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marquge01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">German Marquez<\/a> made by A.J. Preller in the last 48-72 hours.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dummy.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Preller has been a busy man, as he and the Padres agreed to a contract extension for the young GM on Monday. Details are not known yet, but Preller will remain in San Diego for the future.<\/p>\n<p>The addition of Ty France strengthens the overall roster for the Padres. They have multiple people competing for a few roster spots and should get much more production than they got last year from the bench area. This is a good thing for Padres fans.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Padres and first baseman Ty France are reuniting on a minor-league deal, according to sources. France gets a non-roster invite to major-league camp.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dennistlin\/status\/2023410604502093913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>France played last year for $1 million as he signed with the Twins late in the winter. The right-hander won a Gold Glove last season. He is considered an excellent defender at first base. The Padres may try to utilize him late in the game as a defensive replacement.<\/p>\n<p>The right-handed hitter has regressed with the bat after his All-Star years in Seattle. The former Padre was traded to the Mariners in 2020 in a deal for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nolaaa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aaron Nola<\/a>. France immediately took off in Seattle, hitting for an .813 OPS in his first full season. But his bat started to go south.<\/p>\n<p>At the age of 31, there is hope that there is still something left in his offensive production.<\/p>\n<p>France went to San Diego State University and studied his craft under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=gwynnto01,gwynnto02&amp;search=Tony+Gwynn&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=eastvillagetimes.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tony Gwynn. <\/a>The Aztec for Life is outspoken about his time with Gwynn.<\/p>\n<p>Ty France owns a .735 career OPS in just under 3,000 major league at-bats. He is a great veteran addition for the Padres.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20240819_222735.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" alt=\"\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>James was born and raised in America\u2019s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. James has written about the Padres and their prospects for over a decade. He also writes about San Diego State as well as other local sports. James is the Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that\u2019s our motto. Enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n<p>\t            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports The San Diego Padres signed Ty France to a minor league contract.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,3197],"class_list":{"0":"post-576270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-padres","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-padres","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-sandiegopadres","15":"tag-ty-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116082574279155348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}