The San Francisco Giants open the season with a four-game road series against the San Diego Padres beginning March 28, and Blake Snell wants the ball.
Snell, who won the National League Cy Young Award while pitching for the Padres last season, agreed to a two-year, $62 million free-agent deal with the Giants earlier this week.
“We'll throw a bullpen [Thursday] and go from there,” the left-handed Snell said Wednesday at his first news conference as a member of the Giants.
National League Cy Young runner-up Logan Webb will start the series opener against the Padres, but Snell is hoping his arm will be ready to start one of the other games in San Diego.
Snell will have an abbreviated spring training after his late signing due to a slow free-agent market when it came to his services.
“It took a long time, but we had a good plan, and we were committed to it,” Snell said. “It’s tough, but now that I’m here, I’m focused on being here.”
Snell, 31, said he has been following his normal offseason plan and working out in his hometown of Seattle.
Snell went 14–9 with a 2.25 earned run average last season while winning his second career Cy Young Award. He was the American League winner with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018.
Though it took a while to make a deal, Farhan Zaidi, San Francisco’s president of baseball operations, was having discussions with Scott Boras, Snell’s agent, for months.
“We talked all offseason about adding to the top of our rotation,” Mr. Zaidi said. “We were really excited about the pitching we had already. We couldn’t be more excited as an organization. We know Blake’s ready to go.”
Snell has a 71–55 record and 3.20 ERA in 191 career starts with the Rays (2016–20) and Padres (2021–23). He is a two-time ERA champ – with the Rays (1.89) in 2018 and the Padres last season.
While there will be changes for Snell, the man in the dugout will be familiar. New Giants Manager Bob Melvin was Snell’s skipper with the Padres the past two seasons.
“He lets you play,” Snell said. “And he holds you accountable.”
