Padres News: Blake Snell Makes Things Clear Ahead of Free Agency, ‘I Love Being a Padre’
With the Padres being a loss (or a Diamondbacks or Cubs win) away from officially being eliminated from the 2023 MLB playoffs, fans are looking forward to what is sure to be an interesting offseason.
Blake Snell has been lights-out this season, including a seven-strikeout performance against the San Francisco Giants Monday night. The assumed 2023 NL Cy Young winner is set to become a free agent after this season, and there is doubt around the league that Snell will remain in San Diego.
The Padres had the third-highest Opening-Day payroll, and their disappointing season has insiders expecting them to play the offseason more conservatively.
For Snell, who pitched his last game of the 2023 season in San Diego, said that the impending free agency has been on his mind as the season winds down.
"That kind of fueled me," Snell said. "I don't want to stop pitching. I love being a Padre. I love pitching here. I understood that. It fired me up the last month."
(Via AJ Cassavell, MLB.com)
It isn't hard to believe that Snell was fired up over the last month, as he allowed just two runs over five starts, good for a 0.58 ERA and a 3-0 record as a starter.
As a likely two-time Cy Young winner with plenty of good years left, as he is only 30, Snell will be an attractive signing in free agency, and will likely demand a hefty contract that wouldn't be worth it for the Padres, who have plenty of holes to fill on their roster.
Snell is scheduled to start in San Francisco in the Padres' final game of the season but has hinted that he might be done for the year considering the time will likely be out of the postseason race at that point.
