MLB free agent P Blake Snell last night finally came off the market after signing a two-year, $62M deal with the GiantsGetty Images
MLB free agent P Blake Snell last night finally came off the market after signing a two-year, $62M deal with the Giants, the latest sign it would be “difficult to argue” that agent Scott Boras “read this market properly,” according to Ken Rosenthal of THE ATHLETIC. Snell is the latest Boras client to sign "below industry expectations," joining Cubs CF Cody Bellinger (three years, $80M) and Giants 3B Matt Chapman (three years, $54M). Additionally, P Jordan Montgomery remains on the market. For comparison, D-backs P Eduardo Rodriguez signed for as much as Bellinger did, while the Giants' combined outlay for Chapman and Snell is just $3M more "than they gave one of Boras’ younger free-agent clients,” CF Jung Hoo Lee (THE ATHLETIC, 3/19).
A COLD WINTER: In D.C., Chelsea Janes notes Snell's deal with the Giants concludes one of the “strangest free agent winters in recent memory.” His deal is not the nine-figure deal Boras “made clear he was hunting earlier this offseason.” It also does not provide the kind of “long-term baseball security aces who hit free agency around 30 tend to covet and, until recently, always used to get.” When it comes to Boras’ “inability to secure long-term deals” for his top four clients this winter -- Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger and Chapman -- execs point out that his free agent class “simply wasn’t as strong as others he has had in the past.” Barring a "massive surprise" for Montgomery when he eventually signs, none of the seven biggest MLB contracts belong to Boras' clients. There was a time "when he dominated the list” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/19).
