SF Giants starter may be pitching his way out of a Giants uniform

Arguably the biggest offseason acquisition for the SF Giants was starting pitcher Blake Snell. After he struggled mightily to begin his tenure in San Francisco, he is now pitching so well that he may not be in a Giants uniform for much longer.

SF Giants starter may be pitching his way out of a Giants uniform

The Giants signed Snell to a 2-year, $62 million contract in the offseason with a player option after the first season. The hope was that he would be a co-ace with starter Logan Webb at the top of the rotation in 2024 and allow the team to compete for a spot in the postseason. That is not how things have worked out thus far.

Snell signed in the middle of Spring Training so he did not have a full spring to build up his arm strength and stamina. That meant that he was not fully ready to go to begin the regular season and it showed. He struggled mightily in those first few outings to the tune of a 11.57 ERA and eventually got injured. When he returned from injury, he started to show some signs of turning things around but then got injured again.

In his second return from the IL, he has looked much more like the Snell that won a Cy Young last season. In his last 3 starts he has gone at least 5 innings and allowed 2 earned runs or less. He also had a perfect game going into the 7th inning against the Twins which was by far his most impressive start in a Giants uniform.

Snell has done a lot to turn things around and in so doing he may very well be pitching his way out of a Giants uniform.

It is possible that the Giants may decide to deal him in the next week before the July 30th trade deadline if they conclude that this is a lost season. With his opt-out, he would essentially be a rental for a contending team and you can bet there are a lot of contenders that would like to have Snell with how he has looked his last few starts.

Let's say the Giants do not move Snell and make a push for the postseason despite the long odds. In that case, if Snell continues to look this good for the rest of the second half, then it seems almost certain that he will opt out of his contract and try to land a bigger deal in free agency.

It is possible that if his struggles return or he gets injured again he may feel it is too risky to enter free agency again after a poor year. But if he continues to look like the Blake Snell that won two Cy Young awards, something tells me he will not want to stick around in San Francisco next year.