Blake Snell: The Giants Final Piece to the Puzzle
“The Giants signed the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner to a two-year, $62 million deal, the club announced on Tuesday night. The contract includes an opt-out after the 2024 season. Snell will earn $15 million in 2024 with a $17 million signing bonus, payable on January 15, 2026. He’ll earn $30 million in 2025, of which $15 million will be deferred and paid on July 1, 2027.”
Snell joins Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler and Jordan Hicks as the Giants’ big-ticket free agents, and he’ll come to the team with less than a week left in Spring Training, putting a bow on a busy offseason for the Giants. Don’t forget they also picked up Tom Murphy, Nick Ahmed and Robbie Ray. And before you go thinking negatively, let me remind you that Robbie Ray will be back to his old self mid-season with all luck. And that Nick Ahmed is a former Gold Glove award winner and that Tom Murphy has looked good this Spring (and not just because he’s standing next to Joey Bart).
The Giants needed one more pitcher and everybody knew it. The writers, the players, the fan base and Farhan Zaidi all knew it. It’s possible that if the Giants had not lost Tristan Beck, this move may have never happened. There were also players like JD Davis or Brandon Crawford who needed to be cut from the team and the payroll. Anyone who knows about baseball could’ve told you that this was coming down the pipe, especially once the Yankees passed.
Gerrit Cole maybe hurt, but he’s not going to need Tommy John surgery nor is he going to be out for the season. Who knows if Snell wanted to play for the Angels in Anaheim, which was a rumor being pushed by a lot of sports news outlets. That will likely always be between Blake Snell, the Angels front office and Scott Boras. But when I first heard the Giants offered Blake Snell a deal, it seemed in the bag to me. I originally heard Blake Snell was offered 3 years with a 3rd year option, at 30 million per year. I turned out to be a bit off or at least the rumors I heard were inaccurate. But they got the most important part right, Blake Snell was going to be a Giant in 2024 and that was enough for me to celebrate.
Scott Boras began the off season with 4 of the biggest free agents in the business. The fan base began the season by scolding Farhan for not making bigger moves as well as letting their feelings be known to the entire front office. Farhan Zaidi responded with Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks, Matt Chapman, Nick Ahmed, Blake Snell, Jung Hoo Lee and Jorge Soler. Two of the so-called Boras Four are now San Francisco Giants. And I began this season thinking that maybe the Dodgers had finally bought themselves a legitimate World Series. Bought the league. But the Giants front office surprised me this off season by doing pretty much exactly what needed to be done. And if they want to deal Joey Bart and a couple minor leaguers for one more solid player before the end of the month, they should go for it.
For now, the Giants remain contenders to win the National League West. That’s what is most important. We didn’t bow down, we hired a solid new coach in Bob Melvin, made more than a handful of good moves in the off season and, by the looks of spring training, are fully ready to compete with any MLB team they come up against.
By Zachary Casciato 3/19/2024
