After winning his second Cy Young Award, Blake Snell was expecting to sign a multiyear contract worth over $200 million. However, the market did not play out as expected for the Cy Young Award Winner. This left Snell to settle with what was available as the regular season was quickly approaching. Snell recently signed a two-year, $62 million contract with the San Franscisco Giants, which is much less than what a reigning Cy Young Award winner would typically get in the free agency market.
Snell’s contract was signed less than two weeks before the start of the regular season. Late contract signings like this seem to be a common trend this season amongst players who are represented by mega-agent Scott Boras. In addition to Snell signing well into spring training, other impact players, such as Cody Bellinger, Matt Champman and J.D. Martinez, all signed well into the spring. In fact, the starting pitcher for the World Series winning Texas Rangers, Jordan Montgomery, is still yet to sign with a team (as of March 23) after coming off a career season.
While Snell was not able to secure a long-term contract, he was still able to get a high average annual value of $31 million per season. The high average annual value was clearly of more importance since the Yankees offered him a six-year contract worth $150 million, which only comes out to an average annual value of $25 million per season. There were talks that the Houston Astros were also in the sweepstakes for Snell, but they were not willing to pay the $30+ million per season that Snell and Boras were looking for.
As for the San Francisco Giants, this was a move they desperately needed. Over the last few off seasons, they have made it clear they wanted a superstar. Last offseason, they were so close to signing both Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Carlos Correa of the Minnesota Twins. After striking out on both, they bounced back with some great signings and trades this offseason. In addition to Snell, the Giants signed third baseman Matt Chapman (3-year, $54 million), outfielder Jorge Soler (3-year, $42 million), Korean outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee (6-year, $113 million), reliver Jordan Hicks (4-year, $44 million) and traded for former Cy Young award winner Robbie Ray.
All of these moves signify that the Giants are in a position where they think they can win now in such a stacked division such as the NL West is. The Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani and got a huge upgrade in their rotation with Tyler Glasnow. The Diamondback are coming off a season in which they made a shocking run to the World Series in which they swept the Dodgers on the way. By signing Snell and the others, the Giants are showing they are here to compete for a division title again.
