Fantasy baseball: How Blake Snell's signing impacts his fantasy value - ESPN

Defending NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell mercifully found a team to pitch for, as the veteran left-hander and the San Francisco Giants agreed on Monday to what may be a two-year contract, but it may also be just for one season due to an opt-out clause. Regardless, fantasy baseball managers concerned about investing in Snell on the premise that he was not employed on the eve of the season can rest easy, as at least that issue is taken care of.

What concerns some fantasy analysts and potential investors is that Snell is coming off an utterly fantastic, historic season that he would have had a difficult time repeating even had he remained in the comfortable employ of the San Diego Padres. As I outlined in my annual Do Not Draft column, Snell was dominant for the final four months of the 2023 season, but also quite fortunate, as his 2.25 ERA hardly matched his 3.43 FIP. Plus, his volume is normally problematic, at best.

Snell has delivered two fantastic seasons in his eight-year career, also winning the AL Cy Young award with 21 wins and a 1.89 ERA for the 2018 Tampa Bay Rays but, prior to that season as well as in between, he was a bastion of inefficiency and underachievement, failing to throw enough innings to qualify for the league's ERA title in literally every other season. We have seen the highly skilled Snell at his apex and yes, it is awesome. We have also seen him frustrate fantasy managers to no end, reaching 130 innings only in those two magnificent campaigns.

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With a full spring training, Snell would have been a risk for fantasy managers at a certain level in drafts, both of the