Blake Snell Has Become a Top Trade Target at the Deadline

Blake Snell is back. Across four starts in July, the reigning NL Cy Young winner has given up just two earned runs in 24 innings pitched, striking out 30 of the 84 hitters he has faced. The San Francisco Giants are 3-1 in his starts.

Unfortunately for Bay Area baseball fans, the Giants have gone 9-10 in the rest of their games this month. They are two games under .500 and 3.5 games back of a Wild Card spot, with four teams in between them and a postseason berth. FanGraphs has their playoff odds at just 20.7%.

Thus, it comes as little surprise that Blake Snell trade rumors are starting to float around the internet. Snell could be the biggest star (and the most impactful player) on the trade market. The Giants are still in the Wild Card race, but perhaps they could be tempted to cash in on their best trade chip if the offers are sweet enough.

Blake Snell Trade Rumors

Last week, The Athletic‘s Andrew Baggarly was the first to report that Snell was “drawing significant trade interest” across the industry.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post followed up with a report that five different teams were showing “some level of interest” in the left-hander. He noted that Snell’s $30 million player option for the 2025 season could complicate matters, though it was unclear if that was anything more than his own speculation.

A sixth team joined the Snell sweepstakes soon after, again according to a report from Heyman. This time, he identified the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs, and the San Diego Padres (Snell’s former club) as three of the six teams.

Most recently, Heyman named the Baltimore Orioles as potential suitors for Snell’s services. This came after the O’s acquired Zach Eflin on Friday.

Blake Snell Trade Fits

New York Yankees

The Yankees should be aggressive buyers ahead of the trade deadline. They have already landed Jazz Chisholm Jr. to bolster their offense, and now they need to focus on the pitching staff.

New York already has a full rotation featuring Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman, and Luis Gil, in addition to Clarke Schmidt, who is currently on the IL with a lat strain. However, rumor has it they’re willing to trade Cortes, which could open up a spot for Snell.

For what it’s worth, we know the Yankees seriously pursued Snell during the offseason before he ultimately signed with the Giants.

San Diego Padres

There’s no need to explain why the Padres would be interested in Snell. He was phenomenal in San Diego last season, taking home the first Cy Young for a Padres pitcher since Jake Peavy in 2007.

The Friars didn’t seem to make an effort to re-sign Snell this past offseason, but that was presumably due to financial constraints; president of baseball operations A.J. Preller had to get his team under the luxury tax threshold.

If the Padres added Snell now, they would only owe him a prorated portion of his salary for the rest of the season. They could afford to take him on without going over the first CBT threshold, especially if the Giants are willing to eat a bit of his salary.

While teams are typically hesitant to trade their top prospects to division rivals, Preller has always been a wild card. Never say never when it comes to the Padres GM.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs might be five games under .500 and 10 games back in the NL Central, but they’re not going to go down without a fight.

They have already acquired one of the biggest position player prizes of the deadline (Isaac Paredes of the Tampa Bay Rays), so why not go for one of the top pitchers while they’re at it?

The Cubs already have a great one-two punch atop their rotation in Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga. Adding Snell would make for a dominant (albeit left-handed heavy) postseason rotation.

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles are in a fantastic position at the trade deadline. Their team is bursting with talent, and they’re well on their way to winning a second consecutive AL East title.

However, if they want to be sure to fend off the Yankees, they’d be wise to take advantage of their deep farm system and pull off one more big move.

Adding Eflin to the rotation, Seranthony Domínguez to the bullpen, and Cristian Pache to the bench is a great start, but adding Snell would be a whole other kind of exciting. If the O’s aren’t already the World Series favorites, adding Snell would be the best move they could make in pursuit of that goal.