Angels Lose Free Agent Starter Blake Snell to San Francisco Giants

The 31-year-old left-hander went 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA in 32 starts in 2023.

The Angels didn't get their man.

Starting pitcher Blake Snell agreed to a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants on Monday, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The deal is for $62 million with an opt out after the first year.

Breaking: Snell to the Giants. $62M, 2 years. Opt out.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 19, 2024

The 31-year-old left-hander is coming off a season in which he won the National League Cy Young award, and carried the San Diego Padres’ rotation to the finish line of a disappointing season.

Snell went 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA in 32 starts in 2023, with a career-high 234 strikeouts in 180 innings. He received 28 of the 30 first-place votes in the Cy Young balloting.

A free agent for the first time in his career, Snell was the best left-handed starting pitcher on the open market. While others signed quickly, Snell continued to hold out after spring training camps opened around baseball.

He and left-handed pitcher Jordan Montgomery, another holdout, are represented by agent Scott Boras.

The Angels could have used an ace-level pitcher to complement a rotation that includes left-handers Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers and Tyler Anderson, and right-handers Griffin Canning and Chase Silseth.

The Angels project to have a year-end payroll in the range of $188 million — well below the luxury tax threshold of $237 million that owner Arte Moreno has historically avoided. They had an obvious need for a front-end starting pitcher after losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency.

Nonetheless, they will pass on Snell, who is 71-55 with a 3.20 in eight major league seasons with the Padres and Tampa Bay Rays. He won the AL Cy Young Award and made the All-Star team in 2018 with the Rays.