Blake Snell sadly still in denial that Scott Boras absolutely screwed him over

Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are two left-handed pitchers with strong track records who had great years in 2023. They're also two pitchers who had to wait until close to Opening Day to sign their contracts in free agency. To make matters worse, the deals that they signed were short-term commitments. They failed to ink long-term deals despite seemingly everything pointing in their favor.

A big reason for that has to be Scott Boras, the agent who represented them, and also guys like Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger who also signed very late in the offseason. Boras was holding out for insane offers that never came, and had to settle for these low-term, high-AAV deals.

As a response to that lackluster free agent contract, Montgomery wound up firing Boras and blaming him for what has been a brutal year. Snell chose to keep Boras as his agent, and found Montgomery's comments bothersome, at the very least.

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Blake Snell refuses to acknowledge that he, too, was screwed over by Scott Boras

Here's what Snell had to say in response to Montgomery's comments (subscription required):

“I’ve seen how (Montgomery) struggled, but he signed the deal that he ultimately wanted to sign,” Snell said. “He has the choice. I don’t know what other deals he was offered, but I know everything that was offered to me. It’s just sad that he thinks that way when I see Scott as a very honorable man.”

Snell notes that Montgomery had the choice of a deal to sign. It's hard to believe that the offer he got from the Arizona Diamondbacks was the only one he received over the offseason. Snell believes that Boras relayed every offer to him, as that was Snell's personal experience.

In a sense, he's absolutely right. Montgomery could've chosen to sign earlier, and presumably passed on a big deal. Still, it's insane that the deal he wound up signing was all he got considering the 2023 year he just had and his solid track record.

Montgomery has a 6.44 ERA in 19 appearances (all starts) this season. He was recently moved to the bullpen amidst his struggles. At this point, it'd be surprising to not see Montgomery exercise his $25 million player option for 2025 considering how poorly he's pitched.

Snell, like Montgomery, got off to a slow start this season, which is understandable considering the fact that they missed Spring Training. With that being said, though, he has rebounded superbly, pitching to a 1.30 ERA in his last nine starts, looking like the guy who won the NL Cy Young award in 2023.

“My experience with Scott has been great,” Snell said before the Giants’ game Sunday at Seattle. “He told me everything that was happening, all the offers I got. So for him to just get bashed for what I believe is false, that’s not fair at all. I really strongly believe that.”

He's had nothing but a good experience with Boras, and will work with him closely this offseason as he (likely) opts out of his contract with the San Francisco Giants.

It's been nice to see Snell bounce back from his early-season struggles, but are we really going to ignore just how badly Boras screwed him over?

Snell won the NL Cy Young award just last season. That was his second Cy Young win of his career. Sure, he might not go deep into games consistently and can lose command of the strike zone on occasion, but how did he have to settle for the deal he got? Clearly, Boras gave Snell the wrong idea of possible deals he should be expecting.

Snell will likely opt out after the year and there's a chance he'll sign a bigger deal this offseason, but it won't be bigger than the deal he signed this past winter. He's one year older, hasn't been as good, and has missed time due to injury. Last offseason was his chance to truly cash in, and Boras failed to deliver.

On one hand, Boras isn't forcing players to do anything. They can sign whatever deal is presented to them. The only way Boras would be at fault in that regard would be if he just didn't show his clients deals that were being offered to them.

On the other hand, there's no denying that Boras screwed both of these pitchers over. They chose him to represent them for a reason - to get them the most money possible. They both had career years in 2023, yet had to settle for short-term commitments over the offseason. Montgomery, clearly, has failed to live up to his end of the bargain. Snell has done better, but he hasn't been as good as last season.

It's not all Boras' fault, but he certainly isn't blameless for either player. Snell refusing to acknowledge that at all doesn't make much sense.