Giants have logical reason to not care about Blake Snell missing Spring Training

Part of what made the prolonged Blake Snell sweepstakes so frustrating was that he remained unsigned and Opening Day was rapidly approaching. Snell did finally sign with the San Francisco Giants, but he did so less than two weeks before they're set to begin their season. The questions of whether he'll be ready to go when the Giants are and how good he'll be are two really good ones.

Snell has missed all of Spring Training thus far and he figures to only get one start at most before the team prepares for their opener. Snell threw four simulated innings on Friday which is encouraging, but simulated games are not the same as actual games or even Spring Training contests. Who knows how locked in he was on the mound?

It's a bit concerning to a neutral observer to see Snell approach the season without a single Spring Training appearance, but new Giants manager Bob Melvin doesn't seem concerned at all. He has good reasoning for his confidence in the left-handed starter.

Blake Snell missing Spring Training shouldn't be huge concern for the Giants

“If you look at his track record," Melvin said, h/t USA Today's Bob Nightengale. “There’s always a little bit of a slow start for him. But once you got deeper into the season, there were a lot of things out there for him. ERA crown. Cy Young. He was going to be a free agent. He was very motivated. It was truly remarkable to see."

Melvin cites Snell's history of slow starts as a reason why he's not concerned with the reigning NL Cy Young winner missing Spring Training and it makes sense.

Snell's three worst months by far are April, May, and June. His ERA's in May and June sit in the mid-4.00s. Snell's ERA in July, August, and September sit below 3.00. His career ERA in September and October sits at 2.25, an unbelievable number.

This past season, Snell had a 4.50 ERA through the end of May and was barely averaging more than five innings of work. From June on, Snell's ERA sat at 1.23. He put up one of the best 21-start stretches in recent memory. Melvin saw Snell struggle to begin the season first-hand and watched him completely turn his season around even while his teammates were having a rough go of things.

Even with Spring Training, Snell isn't fully warmed up until the summer months. It's not ideal, but assuming he follows the same trend as he has in his entire eight-year career, missing Spring Training isn't the worst thing in the world.