SAN FRANCISCO -- Blake Snell's season with the Giants was full of unexpected highs and lows, but there was nothing surprising about the end result.
Snell officially opted out of the second year of his contract on Friday, returning to free agency seven months after the Giants swooped in and signed him to a deal that they thought would vault them back into the postseason race. The left-hander expects to find a much better market this time around and plans to sign before the start of spring training after seeing the damage that was caused by his lengthy holdout last winter.
The Giants waited for Snell's price to drop last offseason and signed him to a two-year, $62 million deal in March, adding the reigning Cy Young Award winner to a rotation that already had the Cy Young runner-up. They hoped that Snell and Logan Webb would give them a dominant one-two punch and Snell did end up with strong numbers on paper, but he got there in an odd way.
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Snell finished with a 3.12 ERA and 2.43 FIP, but his first half was a disaster and contributed to the team being in a poor position at the trade deadline, when Farhan Zaidi elected to keep his best trade chip and go for it. The Giants put Snell on their opening day roster, hopeful that he could pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers on the first road trip, but he didn't make his debut until the 11th game of the season.
The rust from a missed spring was clear early on, as Snell posted a 9.51 ERA over his first six starts and failed to complete five innings in any of them. Snell twice hit the IL with an adductor strain, but the second stint allowed him to have a semi-spring training at Triple-A, and he was the most dominant pitcher in baseball once he returned.
Snell had a 1.23 ERA over his final 14 starts with a 1.77 FIP and 114 strikeouts in 80 1/3 innings. On August 2, he no-hit the Cincinnati Reds.
The no-hitter was one of four starts over the span of a month during which Snell surpassed 100 pitches, and he made it clear he was trying to prove to prospective buyers that he's capable of going deep into games. At the end of the season, Snell promised that the team that signs him this offseason will get a different version, a pitcher who is capable of being more of a workhorse. He has thrown more than 130 innings just once since 2018.
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"All I want to do is pitch," he said in late September. "It sucks, too, just because I have to be smart, and that's just where I'm at right now, but once I sign that deal it's just pitching, pitching, pitching. I love doing that. That's all I truly care about."
The Giants must now decide how much faith they have in Snell's ability to log innings deep into his thirties. He will turn 32 this winter and is looking for a long-term deal, one that wasn't there last offseason. After opting not to make his final start, Snell, a Washington native, said he enjoys San Francisco and hopes the sides talk in the offseason.
"I love it here. I think we can be really, really good," he said. "I see a lot of promise and I enjoy being here. We'll see what happens. It sucks, I don't like the whole having to decide and all that. I just want to be somewhere that wants me and loves me and will invest in me to be the best player I can be to help them win. I liked it here. I hope it's here. We'll see."