3 reasons why Blake Snell might not be a fit for the SF Giants

3 reasons why Blake Snell might not be a fit for the SF Giants

2. Durability and workloand concerns

This reason is not necessarily unique to the Giants. With below-average command, that would run counter to the Giants' approach to pitching, but some teams have a higher tolerance for it. It helps when you can back it up like Blake Snell, who has won a Cy Young award in each league.

With that being said, the Giants and other suitors must be concerned with how low the ceiling typically is on Snell's workload. The lefty pitcher has completed at least 150 innings just twice in his eight-year career with 2023 being one of those cases. In fairness, he did throw 180 innings last year, which is a full workload for today's pitcher.

It would be hard to project him to tally 200 innings or more in a season when he has not done that before. It could change, but recent history would suggest otherwise.

In 2023, Snell averaged 5.2 innings per start. That is a tad higher than his career mark of about 5.1 innings per start. He does not often give a team length due in part to his below-average command. Pitch counts tend to run high early in the game. How does a quality like this evolve as a pitcher ages? Does it mean that he will only be averaging 4.2 innings per start by the end of his next contract?

However, there has also been an intentional effort to protect him from the third turn in the lineup as is the case with many pitchers. Snell is an exciting pitcher to watch and would bring fans to the ballpark, but he is not a workhorse in a traditional sense.