SF Giants prize free agent acquisition looks great in rehab assignment

The SF Giants have been without their prize free agent pitcher Blake Snell for several weeks as he heals from his adductor strain. Thankfully, he has begun his rehab assignment and looked great in San Jose on Sunday.

SF Giants prize free agent acquisition looks great in rehab assignment

The Giants lost Snell back in late April. His last start with the Giants was on April 19th where he looked fairly solid until the 5th inning when he gave up some damage. In all, his time in a Giants uniform has not been great thus far. He has struggled when he has been on the mound and then got injured.

This should not come as too much of a surprise, though. Snell has famously been a slow starter in his career. Add onto that the fact that he signed late in Spring Training and had to rush to get ready and it is not a surprise that he struggled and ultimately got hurt.

Perhaps it was the reset he needed, both physically and mentally, to get back to being the Blake Snell that won two Cy Young awards. His first action since his injury definitely was a positive sign.

In Sunday's contest with the San Jose Giants, Snell pitched 4 scoreless innings and recorded 7 strikeouts. This included an immaculate first inning in which he struck out the first 3 batters on 9 pitches.

Of course, it should be noted that this was Single-A ball, so Snell was not going up against the stiffest of competition. However, this is a really promising sign as he works his way back from injury.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Snell told her he will probably get one more rehab outing with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats before rejoining the big league club so he can build up his conditioning a little bit more. This is probably prudent as one could argue Snell perhaps rushed his preparation for his first outing with the Giants which may have led to his struggles and injury.

It is just a rehab outing, but with the Giants getting some bad news on the injury front as of late it is nice to at least have one of their best players on the mend and looking good.