MLB Trade Rumors confirmed the move Thursday night, and it closes out a four-year run in Houston that started with real promise and ended with France buried in Triple-A.
France burst onto the scene in 2023, making 23 starts as a rookie and posting a respectable 3.83 ERA over 136-plus innings for a team that went on to defend its World Series title. That felt like the start of something. Instead it was the peak.
The role kept shrinking after that. Just 5 starts in 2024, then 5 relief appearances combined over the past 2 seasons, as the Astros clearly lost faith in him as anything more than organizational pitching depth. This year he got a brief April look — 3 games, 6.2 innings, 6 earned runs, more walks (5) than strikeouts (4) — and it was ugly enough to send him back down for good.
The walks never went away. Even at Triple-A this season he ran a 14.8% walk rate to go with a 3.72 ERA in mostly relief work, and for his career in Houston he sits at 4.49 ERA with 3.4 walks per 9. Command issues like that are the kind of thing that quietly ends careers, and the Astros finally decided they'd seen enough.
The timing stings a little. Houston is releasing a former rookie starter right as it heads into a huge 3-game set with the Rangers with the AL West lead hanging in the balance — a reminder that pitching depth is the whole ballgame in a race this tight, even when the guy getting cut isn't part of the solution anymore.
France is now a free agent at 31, and with contenders always hunting for arms before the trade deadline, he'll get another look somewhere — whether that's a bullpen tryout stateside or, as some have speculated, a fresh start overseas.