SAN DIEGO — Amid a Padres season of peaks, valleys and another second-half surge, San Diego’s steadiest hitter has been one of baseball’s best bargains.Ty France, who did not become the everyday first baseman until June, leads all Padres players with at least 300 plate appearances in OPS (.862). He ranks second in bWAR (3.2). The 32-year-old is making $1.35 million after returning to his original organization this February on a minor-league deal.“I was a 1-WAR player last year, but it all came on the defensive side,” France said. “No teams want a defensive-only first baseman, I guess.”An All-Star with the Seattle Mariners in 2022, France is back to delivering all-around production, though his offensive reemergence has been a year in the making. Traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Toronto Blue Jays last summer, France was met with an immediate diagnosis of a subtle problem: Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins pointed out that where France’s hands used to climb in his pre-swing load, they were now going straight back.They had been for the better part of two years. After an underwhelming 2023 season, France tried to overhaul his swing and “fell into a funk where I didn’t know how to pull myself out.” He got traded from Seattle to the Cincinnati Reds in 2024, settled for a non-guaranteed contract with Minnesota in February 2025, continued struggling, and got traded again.That’s when he met Popkins, a San Diego native who coached for the Twins the previous three seasons, though the two men had never overlapped. They quickly connected.“From the second I got (to Toronto), it was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to fix this,’” France said. “Very grateful for him and his work ethic. It could be 2 in the morning and I could have a question, and I’d call him and he’d answer. It didn’t matter; he just wanted to help and get the player better.”It was a process. With his hands climbing again — the resulting rise-and-fall motion allows France to leverage gravity as his bat accelerates through the zone — he hit .277 with one home run for the Blue Jays in 94 at-bats. He appeared in the World Series and won a Gold Glove. Then he spent the winter fielding only minor-league offers.With spring training approaching, France instructed his agent to reach out to the Padres, the team that drafted the San Diego State product in 2015 and watched him become a 34th-round steal. The two sides discussed a potential reunion on a big-league deal before the Padres signed Nick Castellanos, intending to audition the Philadelphia Phillies castoff at first base.France still accepted a non-roster invite to the Padres’ camp in Arizona.“On paper, it was just a good fit,” France said. “Gavin (Sheets) was the only first baseman at the time, and they wanted to try Casty at first, but knowing what I brought, at least on the defensive side, it just made the most sense and felt right and close to home.”