The Blake Snell Writing Was on the Wall in Tampa

Last night, Blake Snell was traded to the Padres (full story here). The move sent shockwaves through the baseball world, as Twitter exploded around midnight eastern time when the news broke. However, there are many reasons why the trade is not a surprise.

Photo Via: Tom Pennington — Getty Images

The Tampa Bay Rays and Blake Snell clearly had a fractured relationship. The visible frustration on Snell time and time again as he was lifted from his Postseason starts symbolized the disconnect between the two parties. The lefty wanted to pitch and the team wanted to stick with their plan.

Snell has never been shy about voicing his concerns. He reacted live on a videogame stream to the news of the Rays trade last offseason with the Padres, in which they sent outfielder Tommy Pham and utilityman Jake Cronenworth to San Diego. Snell referred to the Rays’ return of players in the deal as “slapdick prospects”. Snell knew the team was ready to win now, and he clearly disliked the preference to cut payroll over maintaining major league ready players on the roster.

After winning 21 games and a Cy Young Award in 2018, Snell’s usage changed in the following two seasons. He fractured his toe when trying to move furniture in his home in April of 2019. He spent the minimum ten days on the Injured List and missed only one start. In July of 2019, Snell had an arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies in his left elbow, which caused him to miss roughly seven weeks of the regular season. Upon his return in September and through the Postseason, he never completed four innings of work. In fact, he was used twice out of the bullpen in the ALDS against the Astros, and he recorded a save in Game 4.

Then in 2020, Snell never completed six innings, despite making all eleven of his scheduled regular season starts. In the Postseason, Snell allowed two runs or fewer in five of his six starts, but was removed each time prior to the end of the sixth inning. The most notorious of all was his Game 6 gem against the Dodgers in the World Series. Manager Kevin Cash walked out to the mound with one out in the sixth inning and took the ball from Snell. Snell yelled as he walked back to the dugout, and Dodgers fans celebrated in the crowd, sensing the opportunity for their team to seize the lead off of struggling reliever Nick Anderson. The Dodgers did just that, and Cash doubled down on his decision to remove Snell in all of his post-game conferences.

Tampa Bay just never seemed like the justifiable fit for Snell. The 28-year old ace is marketable, outgoing, and talented. With San Diego’s hype growing immensely, Snell can fit right in with the star-studded roster of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Mike Clevinger.

With three years remaining on his contract, Snell will likely pitch in a multitude of Postseason games in San Diego. It almost seems certain that the next time he seeks to throw seven innings, he will be given the benefit of the doubt.