Ty France has been on an absolute tear for the Twins through the first two weeks of their spring training slate. He had two more extra-base hits — an RBI double and a three-run homer — in a 9-8 win over the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, and he’s easily been Minnesota’s best hitter so far this spring.
France is now 11 for 20 with two homers, four doubles, and eight RBI. That’s a .550 batting average and a 1.641 OPS. It’s just spring training, and it’s a small sample size, but the Twins have to be encouraged by what they’ve seen from their new starting first baseman.
If this hot spurt is any indication, the Twins might end up with a steal in France, who they signed to a one-year, $1 million deal on Feb. 11. A 2022 All-Star selection, the 30-year-old France has a career 111 OPS+ in six years spent mostly with the Mariners.
He was a very productive hitter from 2021 to ’22, but his offense fell off over the last couple years and his defense has never been a strong suit. However, France was bothered by a fractured heel during his struggles last season, and he could be in line for a bounce-back year now that he’s healthy.
The Twins had a 7-0 lead in Saturday’s game, but as often happens in spring training, things got chaotic after that. Boston scored two runs in the seventh inning and then six runs in the eighth to take an 8-7 lead. In that eighth inning, Twins No. 6 prospect Marco Raya was wildly out of control. He walked two batters and hit three others, exiting without recording an out.
All five of those baserunners came around and scored in an inning that was capped by a Trayce Thompson grand slam.
But the Twins were able to rally.
Jeferson Morales homered to tie it in the bottom of the eighth, and Aaron Sabato delivered a walk-off single to win it for Minnesota.
In the fifth inning, No. 3 prospect Luke Keaschall crushed his first homer of the spring, a 413-foot blast to left that left the bat at 105.6 miles per hour. He’s not going to make the Twins’ Opening Day roster, but he might hit his way into making his MLB debut sometime this summer.
Chris Paddack started this game for the Twins and went 2.2 scoreless innings. He had to leave the game in the third inning after getting by two separate comebackers, so hopefully he’s OK.
Jhoan Duran, Cole Sands, and Louis Varland threw scoreless innings out of Minnesota’s bullpen. Duran’s fastball reached 100.8 MPH, which is good to see after his velocity had been down a bit in previous appearances. Sands struck out the side in a dominant outing, getting six whiffs on 17 pitches.
