2023 couldn’t have gone much better for Blake Snell. Since the calendar flipped to 2024, though, it’s been disaster after disaster for the reigning NL Cy Young award winner.
His latest setback came on Wednesday when the San Francisco Giants placed the lefty star on the 15-day injured list.
Prior to being scratched and placed on the injured list, Snell had been scheduled to start Wednesday afternoon’s home game against the New York Mets.
The 2018 All-Star and AL Cy Young victor from his days with the Tampa Bay Rays turned 31 on Dec. 4 and was expected to cash in with a lucrative long-term deal this winter.
Instead, Snell joined other Scott Boras clients (outfielder Cody Bellinger, starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery and Matt Chapman chief among them) in going deep into the offseason without a new contract.
It was reported in mid-March that Bellinger, Chapman and Snell of the “Boras Four” had fallen over $150M short of predictions in guaranteed money on the offseason contracts they eventually signed. Snell was the penultimate member of the quartet to sign a deal when he joined the Giants on March 19 via a two-year, $62M contract which includes an opt-out after the 2024 season.
Montgomery was the last of the group to ink a new contract, teaming up with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a one-year, $25M deal on March 28, hours before Opening Day. The former Texas Rangers World Series champion subsequently let go of Boras as his agent on April 11.
Not only did Snell wait most of the winter to sign an underwhelming deal before going down injured less than a month into the season, but his early results in the Bay Area have been ugly.
While the rest of the Giants starting rotation is doing its job, Snell has struggled mightily.
Ace Logan Webb is looking every bit like his 2023 self, when he finished second to Snell in the NL Cy Young race. Following Tuesday’s gem of eight scoreless innings, he has now allowed just one run on 14 hits with three walks and 13 strikeouts over his last three starts (all wins) covering 22 innings.
Former reliever Jordan Hicks has been one of the early surprises among senior circuit arms, making his transition to a starter look easy. He’s 2-0 with a 1.61 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in his first five outings.
Snell, meanwhile, begins his IL stint at 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA and 1.97 WHIP over 11 2/3 innings pitched covering three starts.
