What’s next for Mariners after surprising Ty France news?

The Seattle Mariners made it into headlines Sunday evening after reportedly placing first baseman Ty France on outright waivers.

Reports: Seattle Mariners place Ty France on outright waivers

An All-Star in 2022, France has struggled essentially ever since that midseason honor two years ago, and he’s currently running career-low marks in all of the slash line statistics this season – .223 batting average, .312 on-base and .350 slugging for just a .662 OPS in 88 games.

Unlike when a player is designated for assignment, France remains on Seattle’s roster, but he is now available to any team should they be willing to claim him and pay the rest of the $6.78 million salary he is owed for this season. If he clears waivers and the Mariners decide to option him to the minor leagues, France could deny the assignment and become a free agent.

“Obviously this was not a a snap decision or anything like that,” Mariners insider Shannon Drayer told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Monday morning. “This is something that was in the works. I think there were some raised eyebrows when you saw him hitting ninth on Saturday and then not in the lineup on Sunday.”

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Sunday night that rookie Tyler Locklear is “expected to take over” at first base for the Mariners, but he would need to be called up from Triple-A Tacoma first. According to The Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish, however, 30-year-old corner infielder Jason Vosler – who has 97 games of MLB experience over the past three seasons – could get a shot before Locklear.

Vosler was selected by the Mariners on Monday morning, but infielder Ryan Bliss was optioned to Triple-A to make room for him on the active roster, meaning France as of now remains on the team.

Mariners Roster Move: First baseman called up, Bliss optioned

“Especially listening to (Mariners president of baseball operations) Jerry Dipoto last week on your show a little bit,” Drayer said to Brock Huard and Mike Salk, “you kind of felt that they were going to do what they could do internally (to improve their offense), and might be forced to do some things they didn’t want to do internally – be it calling up somebody before they want to call them up or maybe even be it a move like we saw yesterday (with France). It’s a move they can make right now, and they need to make moves.”

Drayer said if the Mariners call up Vosler to play first base in place of France, it may be just to get Seattle to the July 30 MLB trade deadline, where they’re expected to be in the market for bats.

“(The Mariners approach could be) ‘We’ll see if this is anything that plays in the big leagues and keep ourselves open to something at the deadline,’ and if not, then I think that you would see Locklear get a full run at first base,” she said.

It’s worth knowing that a similar case to France being placed on waivers happened a few weeks ago with the Toronto Blue Jays and center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. He cleared waivers and remains with the team, so it’s possible France could still be in Seattle’s lineup as soon as Monday’s 6:40 p.m. series opener at home against the Los Angeles Angels.

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Seattle Mariners insider Shannon Drayer in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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