Blake Snell and the San Francisco Giants reach a $22 million, two-year agreement: Source.

The San Francisco Giants and Blake Snell, the winner of the National League Cy Young Award, have reached an agreement on a two-year, $850 million contract, a team source revealed on Monday. There’s an opt-out in the agreement.

For Snell, the deal signals the conclusion of a protracted tale of free agency that stretched well into spring training. With Snell joining the team, the Giants have added much-needed talent to a division that has only grown more dangerous due to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers’ spending binge.

Snell, ranked fifth on The Athletic’s Big Board for free agents, had a fantastic walk-year in 2023 while playing for the Padres. In terms of hits allowed per nine innings (5.6) and ERA (2.25), he led the major leagues. Even though Snell only pitched 180 innings, he was awarded his second Cy Young trophy. However, that scarcely covers all. Nine starts into his season in late May, Snell had a 5.40 ERA and a 1-6 record. Then, over his final 23 starts of the season, he went on a tear and never stopped, going 13-3 with a 1.20 ERA and an insane.156/.273/.217 opponent slash line.

Over the previous eight seasons, Snell, 31, has established himself as one of baseball’s top left-handed starters. He is just one of seven pitchers in MLB history to win both league Cy Young awards. He has two ERA championships, a 3.20 career ERA, and a 3.33 postseason ERA. His Statcast page is a constellation of red dots, which we will soon address along with a very noticeable blue one. The monster known as “Snellzilla” is armed with trophies and a dirty four-pitch mix. Snell leads all active left-handers in strikeouts per nine innings (11.1), with at least 30 starts. Clayton Kershaw (.209) is the only lefty pitcher currently in action who has made at least 30 starts and has a lower lifetime batting average against than Snell (.214).

But over this offseason front offices have been forced to wrestle with their appraisals of how Snell’s skillset will age over the course of his next contract. The knocks against him are obvious and enduring. Back to that one blue dot on Statcast: Snell was in the fourth percentile in the majors in walk rate. He led the majors in walks in 2023, becoming the first Cy Young winner to top that category since Early Wynn in 1959, and so despite the league-leading opponent batting average Snell’s starts featured a fairly typical amount of traffic on the bases (1.19 WHIP). Due mostly to high pitch counts, Snell has averaged 5 1/3 innings per start in his career. Because of various injuries, he also has only surpassed the 30-start mark twice: his Cy Young seasons.