San Francisco Giants Cy Young Ace Is Officially a Free Agent After Using Opt-Out

The San Francisco Giants best player is officially a free agent.

Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants are officially in the offseason, marked by Friday afternoon news that their superstar two-time Cy Young ace Blake Snell has exercised his opt-out clause and is officially a free agent according to a report from USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale.

It's a move from Snell that doesn't come as a huge surprise and was seemingly widely expected even though opting in would have seen him receive $38.5 million in 2025 on the second year of the two-year deal he signed with the Giants last winter. Snell had a disastrous start to the contract and spent a stint on the injured list, but down the stretch this season he was virtually unhittable and looked like his old self.

After the strong run to end the season, Snell deciding to hit the open market once again is certainly not shocking given that he is represented by Scott Boras who has always been notorious for pushing his clients to hit the open market whenever it's possible. Had the entire season gone the same way the start of it did, he likely would have taken the guaranteed money. Snell posted an 11.57 ERA over three starts in April and an 8.59 ERA over two starts in May.

By July however, Snell was right back to carving up opposing lineups with a 0.75 ERA over four starts, a 1.64 in August over six starts, and a 1.00 over four starts in September, miraculously finishing the season with a 3.12 for the year as a whole. This was directly on the heels of a career season in 2023 with the Padres that saw Snell win his second Cy Young award.

Without a doubt, somebody is likely going to offer the ace either a shorter term deal with a similar AAV but beyond just the 2025 season or even the possibility of a nine-figure mega-deal over the remainder of the productive years of his career. Snell turns 32 years old in December and has proven that he still has plenty left in the tank, so how aggressively San Francisco pursues bringing him back will be fascinating to watch play out.