San Francisco Giants Land Blake Snell on 2-year, $62 Million Deal

Snell was the best pitcher in the National League last season, when he pitched to a 2.25 ERA across 180 innings pitched. Snell led the National League in walks, but also racked up 234 strikeouts. Those numbers were eerily similar to his stats from back in 2018 when he won his first Cy Young.

Now with all of that said, in between his two Cy Young campaigns, Snell was unable to find that same level of success when it comes to his ERA and innings pitched in particular. This may be what scared other teams away, but on a short-term deal, the risk is not too great for the Giants.

They do have to forfeit the requisite draft picks and international bonus pool money for having signed Snell, who already had a qualifying offer attached, but with a 1-2 punch of Webb and Snell, there is every chance the Giants can make a run this year that makes all of that worthwhile.

This marks the end to an absolutely fantastic offseason by the Giants, where they were able to play their hand in a buyer’s market perfectly in free agency. First, they jumped out and landed some young talented free agents in Korean outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee and flamethrower Jordan Hicks.

Then they sat back and waited and their patience has paid dividends.

First, they nabbed Jorge Soler to a three-year, $42 million deal, giving them a great home run threat to DH in the middle of their lineup. Next, they signed Matt Chapman to a three-year, $54 million, which includes opt-outs after each of the first two years.

Now they have capped it off with the biggest piece to the puzzle, landing Snell on this two-year deal. Suddenly the NL West is looking like one of the toughest division in baseball with the juggernaut Dodgers, the San Diego Padres and of course, the reigning NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks.