A Giants Pitcher Bought Pizza for the Padres’ Front Office

Maren Angus-Coombs | Sep 8, 2024

Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Blake Snell is apparently a man of his word.

Despite signing with the San Francisco Giants earlier this season, the former San Diego Padres left-hander had pizzas delivered to the San Diego front office to continue a trend he began two years ago.

In a Facebook post screen-grabbed by Talking Friars, "Last year's party was so much fun" and the employees were "all bummed he didn't remain" with the team this season.

Blake Snell still did a pizza party for the Padres front office this year 👏

(from FB) pic.twitter.com/NlOxGFj6DW

— Talking Friars (@TalkingFriars) September 7, 2024

While Snell tried to remain anonymous by signing the card as "An Old Friend," the Padres knew the note (and the food) could only come from one benefactor. Everyone knew who sponsored the event.

Snell is currently focused on finishing this season strong before signing any type of contract extension for 2025 and beyond. He might also re-enter free agency at the end of the year.

“A deal would be nice, but I think just finishing the season strong, focusing on that is probably most important to me,” Snell said. “If that’s something they want to talk about, I’m always open to it. I’ve enjoyed my time here a lot. I know fans have been hounding me about it. But truthfully, it's up to them. I have nothing but good things to say about San Francisco.”

Neither Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi nor agent Scott Boras, who represents Snell, provided much information to MLB.com's Maria Guardardo when asked if there had been any discussions about a new deal for the reigning National League Cy Young winner.

“I’m sure that in any of these things, every organization wants to do what’s best for them,” Boras said. “Much like with Matt (Chapman), when teams reach out, we respond. Obviously, the biggest and most important thing is when players play well somewhere, you have to really pay attention to it. I do. Because we want players to play well and do well, I think those are very attractive dynamics about why you would want players in certain situations.”

Snell's latest start against the Arizona Diamondbacks didn't go well. The D-backs took advantage of two defensive errors, making Snell throw 42 pitches and keeping him from pitching beyond the first inning.

“We didn’t play defense very well behind [Snell],” manager Bob Melvin said. “That kind of added up. Obviously, we dropped strike three and don’t make a play. Those things that tend to spiral in the first inning. A lot of times, a starter is not quite in rhythm in the first and then we don’t make some plays for him. The next thing you know, he’s got 42 pitches.”

Because of his high pitch count, the Giants didn't send Snell back out for the second inning.

“Just too many pitches,” Snell said. “It’s not smart to go back out. I’ve done it before, but I’ve never felt good after. It’s a lot of risk and not a lot of reward.”