MLB Rumors: Braves trade buzz, Blake Snell surprise market, Yankees-Yamamoto truth
- Yankees offer for Yamamoto shows the team's true intentions
- Two favorites emerge for Blake Snell in post-Yamamoto market
- Braves trade buzz growing with increased sense of urgency
MLB Rumors: Blake Snell being heavily targeted by Giants, Angels
With Aaron Nola re-signing with the Phillies almost immediately in free agency but now seeing Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto all go on the move -- incidentally, all going to the Dodgers -- the rest of the top of the free agency market is starting to take a clearer shape. And perhaps the most polarizing and potentially impactful name on the market is NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
So who is in on Snell? As of right now, it appears that two teams on the West Coast might be making a big push for the lefty, both of whom suffered losses in the race for Ohtani and for Yamamoto as well, at least in one case.
When it became clear that they weren't contenders for Yamamoto and after already having lost on Ohtani, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the San Francisco Giants are in on the 31-year-old southpaw. However, the report also notes that the Angels, after losing Ohtani to the crosstown Dodgers, are also going in hard on Snell.
Though some have raised concerns about Snell's walk rate as a cause for trepidation to signing him to a lucrative deal, it's hard to argue with his 2.25 ERA and 1.189 WHIP from last season, or even his 3.20 ERA over eight seasons in MLB. He's been a stud for essentially his entire career, including capturing both the AL and NL Cy Youngs in his career.
What the Angels do in a post-Ohtani world has long been a curiosity for baseball fans but, with new manager Ron Washington coming into the fray, it makes sense that they would still continue to try and build and upgrade around Mike Trout. Snell would fit that bill. As for the Giants, they've whiffed often on big swings to acquire talent in recent years, but president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi appears undeterred and still willing to spend.
There are surely more options for Snell that are sniffing around, but the West Coast native could very well look to stay on that side of the United States. More importantly, he'd be a massive upgrade for either the Giants and Angels if it does come down to those two.