The biggest remaining name on the free-agent market found a home on Monday night when left-hander Blake Snell agreed to a two-year, $62 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, according to multiple media outlets.
The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner will have the right to opt out of the deal after the 2024 season, per the reports.
Snell, who also won the American League Cy Young Award in 2018, reportedly was seeking a long-term contract through the winter but had yet to find a buyer midway through spring training.
He now joins a rotation that also includes the pitcher who finished runner-up to him in last year’s NL Cy Young voting, right-hander Logan Webb.
Snell, 31, went 14-9 with a major-league-leading 2.25 ERA in 32 starts last year for the San Diego Padres. He walked a big-league-high 99 batters, but he yielded the fewest hits per nine innings among starting pitchers, 5.8 (115 hits in 180 innings).
Snell began his major league career with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016. He earned his lone All-Star team selection in 2018, when he went 21-5 and led the AL in wins and ERA (1.89). He was traded to the Padres in December 2020 for a four-player package topped by catcher Francisco Mejia.
In 191 major league appearances, all starts, Snell has a 71-55 record with a 3.20 ERA, 1,223 strikeouts, 451 walks and 775 hits allowed in 992 2/3 innings.
The Giants are set to add Snell to their offseason haul. After they were unsuccessful in a bid to land two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, San Francisco landed outfielder Jung Hoo Lee on a six-year, $113 million deal and third baseman Matt Chapman for three years and $54 million.
–Field Level Media