The Los Angeles Dodgers added another frontline-caliber pitcher to their starting rotation by signing Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract after he opted out of his deal with the San Francisco Giants.
The left-hander began his career with Tampa Bay Rays before going on to pitch for the San Diego Padres and Giants. He is widely considered to be one of the most analytically driven players in the league and has already stood out to manager Dave Roberts.
“He is a next-level thinker. I’ve had some really good conversations. I think up to this point, the best conversations I’ve had in spring have been with Blake,” Roberts said of Snell.
“He’s very in tune with who he is as a person, as a pitcher. He’s very excited to have a commitment from an organization longterm. He has huge personal goals, he has very short-term goals, team goals. But I think that his feel for baseball, knowing hitters’ tendencies and things like that, really refreshing to me.
“I think nowadays the cat and mouse, game within the game, isn’t really played as much as I’d personally would like by players. He is kind of that mold, which is exciting.”
Roberts is specifically impressed by Snell’s confidence and his desire to help his teammates improve. “I think that he is very sure of himself, which is what comes with experience and his stuff, his pitch mix,” Roberts began.
“He talks a lot about watching hitters and how they react to pitches. I think that I don’t hear a lot from pitchers now these days about hitters’ kind of emotions or demeanor, or how they swing at a certain pitch, which leads to potential sequencing, right?
“And so those are conversations that we have. And he is really trying to get the lay of the land of the Dodger culture, and trying to figure out how he fits into the organization, how he can make people around him better.
“And so for me as a manager, that’s really exciting.”
Blake Snell ‘happy’ with fastball in Dodgers Spring Training debut
Snell made his Dodgers Spring Training debut in a Cactus League game against the Seattle Mariners last week and was pleased with his fastball despite needing 30 pitches to get out of the first inning.
“Felt good,” Snell said after exiting the game. “Fastball was coming out good. That was really my main concern, to see how that plays, see where I’m at. I was looking at velo more than I thought I was going to, but yeah, happy where that’s at.
“Just land the offspeed. I think I’m finding I’m right where I need to be. So threw in the bullpen after to work on that, excited for the next one.”
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