San Francisco Giants ace named best free agent pitcher

The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of one of the most disappointing seasons in the franchise’s long and storied history.

Now, three years on from a 107-win campaign, the prevailing view is that it was a fluke and the team’s ability is much closer to what they showed us in subsequent years.

This year was supposed to be a lot different, although the Giants were always going to have a hard time competing with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, the latter of whom are still celebrating their second World Series championship in a year. five years.

Last offseason, the organization brought in guys like Matt Chapman and then-reigning and undisputed National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

San Francisco signed Snell to a two-year, $62 million contract that included a player option through the 2025 season, and it was one small detail that turned everything upside down.

Snell decided not to exercise his player option, deciding that he would prefer to enter the 2025 MLB free agent class.

Keith Law of The Athletic named Snell the seventh-best available free agent this winter and the third-best starting pitcher.

“He walks too many guys, but he misses a ton of at-bats and his hitting creates a lot of weak contact,” Lowe writes, “so much so that he can still be an above-average starter even when he’s not winning awards.”

To say Snell is walking around with too many guys may be an understatement, as even during his 2023 Cy Young campaign, the left-hander walked 99 batters, the most in Major League Baseball.

Even though he was able to cut down on his walks this year, he still gave away free bases more than most with his walk rate of 10.5%.

However, missing at-bats is Snell’s calling card, and the pitcher has done it with ease over the years, having a 32.1 percent strikeout rate from the start of the 2018 season through this year, and has never seen that rate drop below 30 percent this year. season. time.

After Snell officially decided to opt out of his contract with the Giants and become a free agent, the number of available starting pitchers on the market increased.

Snell has proven he can be an ace on any contending team, with two Cy Young Awards to his name, and could move on to another team as soon as Monday.