Blue Jays may lean on a former Padre to fill George Springer’s role vs Dodgers

The World Series doesn’t hand out breathers, and Game 3 proved it. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays traded punches for 18 innings until every move felt like a bullpen coin flip. But inside the chaos was the moment that could tilt the whole thing: George Springer wincing mid-swing, grabbing his right side, and exiting. 

He got an MRI overnight and we still don’t have clarity for Game 4, which is a problem for a lineup built on contact, carry, and veteran poise. And here’s the wrinkle we can’t shake: this is exactly where a former San Diego Padres bat like Ty France can matter. He’s not Springer, but he is the kind of pitch-to-pitch grown-up at-bat that keeps you alive against the Dodgers’ shape-shifting staff. If Springer’s down, that’s an earthquake; France could be the aftershock that keeps the building standing.

With Springer uncertain, Ty France gives Blue Jays a different path vs Dodgers

If Springer can’t go, John Schneider has to replace not just a bat, but a tone-setter, someone who’s been a postseason metronome for a decade. That urgency is why Toronto turned to Ty France in the moment, sending the former Padre up cold to inherit an 0–1 count and finish Springer’s at-bat. He struck out there, but later logged a hit in his 2025 postseason debut and gave the Jays professional, fight-for-a-pitch at-bats until he was replaced in the 10th inning.

The broader context makes France even more relevant: Toronto added both Bo Bichette and France to its World Series roster last week, giving Schneider multiple paths to cover DH while protecting infield defense. 

France’s journey to this spot runs through San Diego. He was part of the 2020 seven-player Padres-Mariners swap that sent France, Taylor Trammell, Andrés Muñoz, and Luis Torrens to Seattle for Austin Nola, Dan Altavilla, and Austin Adams, a deal that quietly reshaped two clubs and launched France into everyday reps. 

That Padres connection matters now because it speaks to the trait Toronto needs most without Springer: translatable bat-to-ball. France has worn that label since El Paso, where he was the Pacific Coast League MVP in 2019, and it carried into a 2022 All-Star nod and multiple Player of the Week bursts, including this April. You don’t ask him to be Springer; you ask him to win pitches. 

Zoom into the micro matchups and the fit becomes clearer. Against a Dodgers staff that toggles velocity bands and shapes, inside-out contact plays. France’s game is geared to spoil and square, to turn two-strike counts into liners and ground-ball chaos. That doesn’t guarantee thunder, but in a series where one single can send a runner first-to-third and one nine-pitch at-bat can flip a reliever plan, the skill is premium. And while he’s not a burner (Toronto even pinch-ran for him after he reached in extras), his offensive floor raises the Jays’ margin for error in the middle innings.

How Schneider arranges the chessboard is the fascinating part. One option: keep Bichette’s legs fresh by mixing him at DH, slide Isiah Kiner-Falefa to second, and deploy France as the right-hand bench bat who can take the toughest late at-bat from a lefty. Another: lean into France as the DH against certain pockets of the Dodgers’ pen, using Bichette in the field in shorter stints. The roster was built to allow those toggles, and Toronto signaled as much by activating both players for this round. 

None of this erases what Springer means, he’s the pulse, and oblique-adjacent “right side discomfort” can be fickle on turnaround rest. But October belongs to the unscripted, and this is where role players with sturdy skill sets tilt outcomes. Ty France, once a Padre prospect shipped out in a summer swing trade, now has the chance to be that lever: grind pitches, steal a matchup, buy a run. If he does, the Jays can keep their offense on plane until Springer is back — or, if he isn’t, long enough to pry the series back to even.