The Los Angeles Angels Need to Hurry Up and Sign Blake Snell
The Los Angeles Angels better hurry up and sign Blake Snell.
After reports on Sunday indicated that the Angels were the favorites to sign the reigning Cy Young winner, the pressure may be ratcheted up on them to finalize the deal following the news of Gerrit Cole's potential injury.
Per Jeff Passan of ESPN:
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will have an MRI on his right elbow, manager Aaron Boone told reporters today. Cole is coming off winning the American League Cy Young Award and has had difficulty bouncing back between spring training starts, Boone said.
See, if Cole is seriously injured, the Yankees may very well get right back into the mix for Snell (they previously offered him a deal this offseason). While as of now, it's looked like the Angels' sweepstakes to lose, it may no longer be that way. It will likely take a few days to get a definitive word on Cole, so the Angels may have a few extra days to get the deal done, but not necessarily.
Snell had reportedly wanted more than $200 million earlier in free agency, but lately he's said he's willing to take a shorter-term deal.
Snell is coming off a year in which he went 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA for the San Diego Padres. He won his second Cy Young Award, having also won the AL Cy Young award in 2018 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Los Angeles is coming off a season in which they finished fourth in the American League West. They could use a top of the rotation arm in free agency after losing Shohei Ohtani to the cross-town Dodgers.
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