The Boston Red Sox are reportedly registering interest in reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell in free agency.
According to WEEI’s Rob Bradford, the Red Sox have shown interest in multiple pitchers, and Snell remains “on their radar.”
The 31-year-old Snell has spent the past three seasons with the San Diego Padres after previously playing five seasons for the Tampa Bay Rays.
After helping the Padres reach the National League Championship Series in 2022, Snell enjoyed one of his best individual seasons in 2023, going 149 with a 2.25 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 234 strikeouts over 180 innings.
Those numbers were enough to earn Snell his second career Cy Young Award. His first came in 2018 when he won the American League Cy Young Award by going 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 221 strikeouts over 180.2 innings for the Rays.
Last season, Snell became only the seventh player in MLB history to win the Cy Young in both leagues, joining Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay, Max Scherzer, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Gaylord Perry.
Although the lefty has reached the 30-start mark only twice in his career and led the NL in walks last season with 99, he is still widely regarded as the best starter available in free agency, along with Japanese righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Red Sox are coming off a 78-84 season, and they have missed the playoffs in back-to-back years.
Pitching played a major role in their lack of success last season, as they were 21st in Major League Baseball in team ERA at 4.52. They also allowed the seventh-highest batting average to opposing hitters at .256 and the seventh-most home runs at 208.
As of now, Boston is returning many of the same starting pitchers that it had on staff last season, including Chris Sale, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck.
In addition to Snell, it was reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com that the Red Sox are also in the mix for another Padres starting pitcher in Seth Lugo.
Since the Red Sox are not currently aligned to be contenders next season in all likelihood, it is unclear if they would be willing to spend the type of money it would take to land a top-flight, veteran pitcher like Snell.
When comparing Snell’s potential deal with other recent starting pitcher contracts, Spotrac projects that he has a value of $24 million per season.
Snell would almost certainly improve Boston’s rotation significantly, but that may still not be enough to be competitive in a stacked AL East division that includes three 2023 playoff teams in the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays, plus a New York Yankees team that is lining up to be much improved.
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