Blake Snell has been one of the hottest pitchers in baseball over the course of the last couple of weeks. He's tossed a no hitter and a 6 inning, 15 strikeout performance over his last few starts. He looks more and more like the pitcher that he was last season as the season goes on.
When his name emerged at the trade deadline as a pitcher that could be dealt, many expected it was just the San Fransisco Giants shopping him and that he wouldn't really be available.
MLB insider Jon Heyman has reported that Snell was seriously available at the deadline, but it was his player option that caused teams to hesitate.
"The Yankees —one of at least six teams to check in, along with the Orioles, Dodgers, Padres, Cubs and Rangers — seemed worried about the $30M player option, but two rival GMs opined it would take a 'catastrophic' or 'debilitating' injury for Snell to exercise it now, anyway."
Of these six teams, three of them stand out to me as teams that really fumbled the opportunity to acquire the reigning NL Cy Young.
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When looking into this deal, there are a few things to look into to decide if a team would have been a solid fit for Snell.
The team making the move for him would need to be comfortable with him accepting his $30 million option in 2025, on the slim chance that he does accept it. They would also have to have at least one top 100 prospect they could part ways with to put together a package big enough for Snell. then, they would need to have the guts to go out and make a huge move like this while Snell remained a bit of a streaky question mark after his horrible start to the year.
The Dodgers check all those boxes as well as having an injured pitching staff. Los Angeles opted on making a deal for the ace of the deadline, Jack Flaherty, instead of going after Snell. Flaherty is a cheaper option that has been very good this year and you can't fault the Dodgers for acquiring him. Still, they are likely kicking themselves for not pushing harder for Snell.
Ultimately, this trade probably never came close to happening, largely because the Giants likely didn't want to trade such a huge talent to their division rival, Los Angeles Dodgers.
2. San Diego Padres
We will pivot to another NL West team. The Padres aren't as direct of a rival to the Giants as the Dodgers are, which opened the door for them to make this deal a lot easier than it would have been for Los Angeles.
The Padres have also shown exactly how aggressive they're willing to be over the past few seasons as they have gone out to acquire top pitching talent like Dylan Cease and Tanner Scott over the last calendar year. The acquisition of Scott really sticks out as a win now move because they dealt multiple top prospects for an expiring reliever while they already have a lock down closer.
That Scott trade is also likely to be the main reason that San Diego didn't make a deal for Snell. After trading so much prospect capital away to acquire Scott, there's just no feasible way that San Diego could deal away more of their top prospect capital for another rental.
I understand going all in to win, and yes, if they win the World Series, it's all worth it. But if they part ways with six or seven of their top 10 prospects and then lose the World Series and watch Scott and Snell enter free agency, they would be setting their organization back quite a ways.
Good fit, but given the Scott trade, it wasn't as likely as a candidate as many would imagine.
Out of all the teams in the league that have the money, need, fit and desire to trade for Snell, it's the Yankees that stand out as the best fit and the biggest headscratcher of a pass up in the league.
Zachary Rotman of FanSided expressed how frustrating it was that the Yankees opted to pass on the Giants ace.
"If the Yankees were concerned about Flaherty's health, fine, that makes sense. Being concerned about Snell picking up a player option that he's unlikely to without injury when you're the New York Yankees with a chance to win the World Series, does not make sense."
Rotman was also quick to point out how desperate the Yankees should have been to acquire a top pitching talent due to the struggle in their rotation.
New York needs an ace like Snell. They need it. Yes, they may not have the money to have seen Snell accept his player option next year, but that's such an unlikely scenario.
The Yankees need to win this year if they want any chance of signing Juan Soto to a long-term contract in the offseason, which is priority number 1 in the Bronx. Trading for Snell in a deal headlined by Spencer Jones just makes sense.
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