Padres News: Bob Melvin Discusses Plan On How to Avoid Slow Start for Blake Snell
During his time with the Rays, Padres pitcher Blake Snell pretty consistently got his seasons off to good starts. In his four seasons in Tampa, Snell's ERA in March/April was 2.74.
Since coming to San Diego, though, that hasn't been the case. In 2021, his first year with the Friars, Snell posted a 3.92 ERA in March/April and then got even worse in May with a 6.84 ERA. He came back down to 4.86 in June, but it really wasn't until August that he got things figured out. In 2022, he missed the first month of the season, then had a 5.22 ERA at the All-Star break after 11 starts. Snell posted a 2.19 ERA the rest of the way, once again turning things on as the season wore on.
Padres manager Bob Melvin was asked recently about Snell's slow starts and what they're doing to try to avoid that this year.
"Yeah, I think he's he's pretty cognizant of the fact that, you know, he's always there, his second halves are fantastic, but he probably did a little bit more this year to maybe get started in a little better fashion and maybe try to add some consistency throughout the entire season. And part of it last year was health, you know. He got off to a slow start with us, even when he took the mound his first few times, the innings weren't there. So hopefully we get him up to speed right away and he's on time with everybody else."
Snell will be an important piece of the puzzle for San Diego this year. Along with Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish, an effective Snell could help give the Friars a formidable top of their rotation as they look to build on the huge steps they took in 2022, making the NLCS for the first time since 1998.
Melvin didn't go into detail about what, specifically, Snell has done differently this offseason, but his early performance will definitely be something to keep an eye on.