The San Francisco Giants tried to spend their way into contention, but it didn’t pay off this season.
They spent more than $200 million to sign star free agents like Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler and Jung Hoo Lee. But they ended up trading Soler away and Lee went down with a season-ending injury, contributing to the team’s disappointing .500 season.
And now, one of their other major offseason signings seems like it will be all for naught, even though he’s been stellar on the diamond.
The Giants gave two-time Cy Young Award winner and 2023 All-MLB first team starter Blake Snell a two-year, $62 million contract with an opt-out after this season. He proceeded to rack up 145 strikeouts in 104 innings with a 3.12 ERA in an ultimately-futile season for the Giants, and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi now expects him to decline his $30 million option for 2025.
“Zaidi said Giants expect Blake Snell to opt out and have a lot of suitors in free agency,” Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported. “Zaidi: ‘I expect us to be part of that, but it’s going to be very competitive with the way he has pitched.’”
After winning his second-career Cy Young Award in 2023, Snell sought a lucrative, long-term deal in free agency but was unable to find one that met his expectations. Instead, he took a short-term deal with the Giants and bet on his ability to demonstrate his value once again.
That bet has paid off, and the 31-year-old is now likely to earn that long-term deal, making a $30 million return to the Giants unattractive.
“Aaron Nola got seven years, $172 million off his age-30 season and Jacob DeGrom got five years, $185 million off his age-34 season,” Zachary Rymer noted for Bleacher Report. “Based on those deals and the fact that a qualifying offer is now out of the picture, a six-year contract in the neighborhood of $200 million could be out there for Snell this winter.”
The Giants might renegotiate with Snell and bring him back on that kind of long-term deal. But, given the way their high-dollar bets have paid off this season, it seems unlikely they will make another major financial commitment to the pitcher.
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