Blake Snell is leaving San Diego for San Francisco.
The 2-time Cy Younger winner has reportedly agreed to a two-year, $62 million take care of the Giants, ending a three-season stint with the Padres and an extended, unsure offseason. MLB Community’s Jon Heyman first reported the information Monday. Per a number of experiences, Snell has an opt-out after one season.
The deal comes simply 10 days earlier than the beginning of the common season and concludes Snell’s arduous free company with agent Scott Boras. Snell was the No. 4 free agent on Yahoo Sports activities’ top-25 listing coming into the winter. Per a number of experiences, the Houston Astros, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels had been additionally linked to curiosity in Snell, however he finally landed in San Francisco.
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Will Snell keep his Cy Younger type?
Snell, 31, is coming off a resurgent marketing campaign that noticed him safe his second profession Cy Younger Award. He posted an NL-best 2.25 ERA alongside a 1.189 WHIP with 234 strikeouts in 180 innings pitched in 2023. His 5.9 hits allowed per 9 innings was greatest within the NL.
Snell owns a four-pitch arsenal anchored by a high-90s fastball used to arrange strikeouts with a plus slider, curveball and changeup. His excessive strikeout price allowed him to reduce harm final season regardless of permitting an NL-most 99 walks.
His ERA final season was his greatest since his earlier Cy Younger season, which got here with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018. That 12 months, he posted an AL-best 1.89 ERA.
Snell’s management, or lack thereof, can typically trigger issues. In between his Cy Youngs, he posted two seasons with an ERA over 4 — 4.29 in 2019 and 4.20 in 2021 — however at his greatest, he is one in every of baseball’s most overwhelming pitchers. He’ll present important upside on the prime of San Francisco’s rotation alongside Logan Webb, along with his signing concluding a sneaky-good Giants offseason that additionally included the additions of Jorge Soler, Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman within the lineup.
New period begins for Padres
Snell’s exit from San Diego indicators the group’s effort to chop payroll after the Padres made a number of high-profile acquisitions in latest seasons underneath late proprietor Peter Seidler. Shortly after buying and selling for Snell in 2020, the Padres struck a deal for fellow All-Star starter Yu Darvish. They traded for perennial MVP candidate Juan Soto on the 2022 commerce deadline and signed All-Star infielder Xander Bogaerts to a $280 million free-agent contract the next winter.
These gamers joined a roster that already featured rising star Fernando Tatis Jr. and All-Star Manny Machado and was designed to compete for San Diego’s first World Collection championship. And the Padres did advance to the NLCS in 2022 earlier than a disappointing 82-80 marketing campaign in 2023 fell in need of the postseason.
The Padres nonetheless undertaking to subject a aggressive roster in 2024 and will contend for a wild card. However the free-wheeling spending days underneath Seidler — who died in November — seem like up to now.