Juan Soto believes the Yankees should sign Blake Snell
The New York Yankees have made it no secret that they aren’t closing the door on acquiring additional talent ahead of the 2024 MLB Season, which begins in exactly one month on March 28.
One of MLB’s premier free agents left is starting pitcher Blake Snell, who the Yankees have had reported interest in. New York’s been in search of additional starting pitchers throughout much of the offseason, even after signing veteran Marcus Stroman.
Newly acquired outfielder Juan Soto, Snell’s teammate in San Diego for one-and-a-half seasons, recently endorsed bringing Snell to the Bronx.
“It would be unbelievable to have two Cy Young winners going back-to-back. It’d be great,” Soto said earlier this week, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. “[Snell’s] a great guy, a great player. Any help that we can get I would love.
“I know if he’s coming over, he’s going to help the team big-time. It’s always great to have great talent on the team. I would never say no. So it’s a great fit for him, I think.”
Both Soto and Snell are Scott Boras clients, meaning they’re going to extract every possible dollar from the team’s pocket. Snell isn’t the only free agent that Boras has unsigned; Matt Chapman and J.D. Martinez are still looking for (new) homes ahead of the 2024 season.
Snell won the NL CY Young last year, sporting an MLB-best 2.25 ERA (182 ERA+) plus a 3.44 FIP with 234 strikeouts to 99 walks in 180.0 innings pitched. A lot of his success was due to his partnership with Gary Sanchez behind the dish, who recently signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The 31-year-old southpaw has still had success throughout his career, also winning the AL CY young in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays after he led the league with a 1.89 ERA and a 217 ERA+ across 180.2 innings. He only combined to throw 413.2 innings from 2019-22 (103 average IP)–never surpassing 129 innings–where he pitched to a 3.85 ERA, 3.44 FIP and 12.0 strikeouts-per-nine in 85 starts.
The Yankees are already $61 million above the $237 million competitive balanced tax, thus they are over the fourth-and-final $297 million tax threshold, according to Spotrac. It would be difficult seeing them shell out at least $30 million for an arm that hasn’t been the most reliable–even though he’s still good–unless it really wanted to blow past the so-called Cohen Tax.
Luxury tax aside, inking (starting) pitchers to bigger contracts is more difficult to stomach than hitters. Any long-term contract given to Snell could preclude them from wanting to pay Soto–in addition to maybe Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo and Clay Holmes–next winter.
Snell would provide an instant boost to a Yankees rotation that’s arguably a top-10 unit across MLB. Plus, having the league’s two 2023 CY Young winners doesn’t sound like the worst idea, but at what cost?
“I think he’s just waiting for the perfect spot for him,” Soto said. “It is what it is. It happened before, with [Manny] Machado, and with [Bryce] Harper. Those guys signed late, in spring training. They were asking for the money, and they got it.”
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