Red Sox should be all over recently waived Mariner to platoon with Dom Smith

The Boston Red Sox entered the 2024 campaign with a lot of perceived holes on their roster, but first base was not one of them. Triston Casas had an .856 OPS in his first full MLB season, and was looking like a budding star. Unfortunately, he has been out since late April and there's no concrete timetable as to when he'll return from the injured list.

Despite the Casas injury and a bevy of other injuries on this Red Sox team, they enter Monday's action with a record of 53-45. They're just 1.0 game back of the third Wild Card spot and are even still in the AL East race, sitting 6.5 games behind the first-place Orioles.

Their high level of play has made it so that they're almost certainly going to be buyers at this year's trade deadline. How far they'll be willing to go when it comes to adding payroll or trading prospects remains to be seen, but the Red Sox will certainly be looking to make their roster better as they try and squeak into the postseason.

With the Casas injury timeline murky at best, the Red Sox should look to make an upgrade at first base. Fortunately, one just became available with the Seattle Mariners placing Ty France onto waivers on Sunday.

(For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work onThe Baseball Insiders podcast, and join the discord to get the inside scoop as we near the July 30 MLB trade deadline.)

Red Sox should look to add Ty France to bolster first base production

With Casas missing most of the season thus far, Dominic Smith, a player Boston signed in early May, has been getting most of the action at first base against right-handed pitching. Romy Gonzalez has been playing there against lefties.

While Gonzalez has played fairly well, he doesn't have much of a track record that suggests that will carry on. France, on the other hand, while he has had a down year, has a much better track record, and has still been solid against lefties.

France has an underwhelming .662 OPS overall, but that number jumps up to .750 against southpaws with three of his eight home runs coming against left-handers. Perhaps with a change of scenery, we can see France turn his season around, and the fact that he possesses a career .866 OPS at Fenway Park makes the fit even more enticing.

Is it the upgrade Red Sox fans want to see? Of course not. This team can and should do a whole lot more than just acquire Ty France. However, a marginal upgrade like this could end up helping the Red Sox win a game or two that they might not have won if they passed on him. One extra win could be the difference in what will certainly be a tight postseason race.