Juan Soto’s conferences with homeowners across the leagues have dominated headlines not too long ago, however he’s not the one high-profile free agent or Scott Boras consumer establishing conferences with group contingents. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic studies that left-hander Blake Snell has held latest conferences with each the Crimson Sox and Dodgers. The Blue Jays are additionally pursuing Snell, per Rosenthal’s report, and will quickly arrange a gathering of their very own. The Orioles are one other potential membership who might accomplish that.
Each Boston and Los Angeles have cause to be in on high-end rotation assist this summer season, and the 32-year-old Snell, a two-time Cy Younger winner, clearly suits the billing. Equally, Snell has good motivation to push for a swifter free company than final offseason, after lingering in the marketplace into spring coaching and signing a two-year cope with an opt-out in San Francisco lower than two weeks earlier than Opening Day.
For the Crimson Sox, Snell would add a No. 1 starter to the highest of a rotation that might lose Nick Pivetta to free company after he rejected a qualifying supply. Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello are all rotation locks proper now. Lucas Giolito will be part of them in some unspecified time in the future within the season’s first half, however his timeline stays murky after he missed the whole 2024 season — his first in Boston — because of UCL surgical procedure carried out in spring coaching. Righty Garrett Whitlock can also be on the mend from his personal UCL process.
Candidates for the ultimate two rotation spots at Fenway Park at present embody Richard Fitts, Cooper Criswell, Quinn Priester and Zach Penrod. Criswell seemed to have a leg up after a good season, attributable to a scarcity of minor league choices, however he’s reportedly eligible for a fourth choice yr, which provides the Sox much more flexibility with their workers.
Many Crimson Sox followers are understandably skeptical of the group’s willingness to comply with via on pursuits of high-profile free brokers. Boston devoted are nonetheless stinging from chairman Tom Werner’s broadly mocked “full throttle” feedback final offseason, which didn’t end in an acquisition bigger than Giolito’s two-year, $38.5MM contract. However Crimson Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has taken a extra aggressive stance himself this time round, declaring that it’s time for the Crimson Sox to “ship the group that’s able to profitable the AL East” even when which means the Sox have to be “aggressive in bringing gamers in who aren’t at present within the group.”
From a payroll perspective, the Crimson Sox have greater than sufficient area to accommodate a number of big-ticket additions this winter. RosterResource at present initiatives Boston for a $138MM payroll and $171MM value of luxurious obligations. That projection is sort of $100MM shy of their franchise-record payroll, whereas their luxurious ledger proper now leaves them $70MM shy of the primary tier threshold. After all, the Crimson Sox haven’t been shy about paying the posh tax prior to now, both. They did in order not too long ago as 2022 and have now reset their penalty stage by dipping again below the tax line. The Crimson Sox have a particularly small arbitration class — simply Houck, Crawford and Jarren Duran — and can solely add Triston Casas, Connor Wong and maybe Zack Kelly to that group in 2026.
Turning to the Dodgers, there’s an apparent case for Snell as a match. Connections like this could typically be extra anecdotal than substantive, however it a minimum of bears mentioning that Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was operating baseball operations in Tampa Bay when the Rays drafted and developed Snell. Outdoors their offers for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — two gamers with distinctive free agent circumstances — the Dodgers have most popular shorter-term, high-AAV offers in free company. That might make Snell, whose most contract size is maybe shorter than different top-tier starters as a result of he’s about to show 32 years outdated, a extra typical “Dodgers” match.
One deterrent for the Dodgers could possibly be an already bloated luxury-tax invoice. RosterResource pegs them at $270MM in obligations, that means they’re already properly into the second tier of penalty. Snell alone might push them into the fourth tier, significantly on a high-AAV short-term deal. Even utilizing final yr’s $31MM AAV as a hypothetical guideline — and Snell has a case for a better one on one other comparatively brief deal — Snell would price the Dodgers practically $57MM in yr one of many contract. That’d additionally set the Dodgers as much as pay a 110% tax on any {dollars} spent thereafter. Trades and non-tenders might reduce the sting, however doubtless not by a lot. Any free agent {dollars} spent by the Dodgers are going to harm.
Nonetheless, the Dodgers doubtless really feel they should chunk that bullet. The rotation in Los Angeles has practically unmatched star energy however equally has practically unmatched query marks. Yamamoto, Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow make up a doubtlessly dominant high three, however well being issues abound. Yamamoto missed greater than two months with a shoulder harm in 2024. Glasnow was restricted to solely 22 begins final yr, and his modest 134 innings represented a career-high. Ohtani didn’t pitch whereas recovering from the second UCL restore of his profession.
Past that proficient however dangerous high three are Tony Gonsolin (who missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure), Dustin Might (who missed all of 2024 recovering from forearm surgical procedure and an esophageal process) and Bobby Miller (a breakout 2023 rookie who struggled immensely in 2024). Extremely touted younger arms like Gavin Stone (shoulder surgical procedure), River Ryan (Tommy John surgical procedure), Emmet Sheehan (Tommy John surgical procedure) and Kyle Damage (Tommy John surgical procedure) will miss some or all the 2025 season. Dodgers icon Clayton Kershaw will probably be again on some type of incentive-laden deal — he’s already declared as a lot — although the 2 events have but to come back to particular phrases. Kershaw began simply seven video games final yr.
Snell, after all, has his personal prolonged harm historical past — together with a pair of groin and adductor accidents that restricted him to 6 terrible begins within the season’s first two months with the archrival Giants. Nonetheless, upon returning in early July, the lefty seemed again to Cy Younger kind. He fired 12 shutout frames between his first two begins, kicking off a three-month run for the ages. Snell tossed a no-hitter at Cincinnati’s Nice American Ball Park in opposition to the Reds, fanned 15 Rockies in a begin at Coors Discipline and at one level went on a streak of 4 double-digit strikeout performances in 5 begins.
Over the ultimate three months of the season, Snell was comically dominant. He pitched 80 1/3 innings with a jaw-dropping 1.23 ERA, complemented by an elite 38.1% strikeout price and a ten% stroll price that’s larger than common however satisfactory for somebody who can miss bats at Snell’s stage. It was solely 14 begins, however Snell was the very best pitcher in baseball from July 2 onward.
Snell has a historical past of gradual begins and blistering second-half surges, however as I examined late within the season for MLBTR Entrance Workplace subscribers, lots of his first-half struggles have come along side uncommon spring circumstances (i.e. the shortened 2020 season, the accelerated ramp-up from the 2021-22 lockout, and signing in late March final yr). True, there are pitchers who’ve succeeded despite comparable circumstances, however we’ve additionally repeatedly seen late-signing pitchers battle early within the yr (e.g. Jordan Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi, Lance Lynn, to call a number of). It’s eminently attainable that Snell is the kind of pitcher who merely wants a full runway to appreciate his finest kind. He’d hardly be alone in that regard, and that attribute provides him all of the extra motivation to have a deal in place properly earlier than spring coaching begins.
Snell faces some notable competitors on the free agent market. Some golf equipment might not need to spend aggressively on one other free agent earlier than they know the result of the Juan Soto public sale, and even these prepared to spend earlier than that can even need to weigh the deserves of signing a 32-year-old Snell versus a 31-year-old Max Fried, 30-year-old Corbin Burnes or 29-year-old Jack Flaherty. Fried and Burnes have qualifying provides connected to them, whereas Snell and Flaherty don’t; in different phrases, groups must forfeit draft picks and worldwide bonus pool area to signal Fried or Burnes — however not Snell or Flaherty. Snell is three years older than Flaherty but in addition extra achieved. He definitely has his warts and carries loads of threat, however it’s simple sufficient to see how a membership might view Snell as essentially the most interesting of this offseason’s top-tier starters when factoring in doubtless size of contract, draft compensation, observe report, well being and different components.
