EXCITED ABOUT ‘SWAGGY’ PADRES
But it’s bittersweet for Snell, leaving only team he’s ever played for
B“We have a chance to win a World Series right away. You’ve got to love being a part of that.” Blake Snell • On coming to Padres
lake Snell has an inkling of what awaits him in San Diego. He wants to be enthusiastic. He is certain he will be. But as of Tuesday afternoon, he couldn’t recall which night he had been traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Padres nor what day it currently was. It was so unexpected and all happened so quickly, he hardly had time to get his mind around leaving the place where he spent the past decade. He is just beginning to allow what is ahead to sink in.
“It was just sad, honestly,” Snell said Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the Padres officially announced the Sunday trade. “I haven’t really processed what it’s going to be like to have an Arizona spring training, what it’s going to be like to go play in San Diego. I was just more ref lecting on the last 10 years of my life and the things I’ve been through and the things I’ve learned, the people I’ve met and the importance it’s had on my life.
“I’m going to start focusing that on the Padres, the positives and what that’s going to bring. But it’s been a lot to process. … As I start to look forward and start to get ready for the season, it’s going to be something super exciting for me. I’m excited to be part of this team. It’s a very talented ballclub. We have a chance to win a World Series right away. You’ve got to love being a part of that.”
That is how it went in Tuesday’s Zoom call with reporters, Snell f luctuating between exuberance over what he anticipates joining one of baseball’s most thrilling teams and lamenting what he has lost by leaving the only organization for which he has played since being drafted 52nd overall in 2011.
“Now that’s its official and I know I’m going to San Diego, it’s bittersweet to me,” he said. “I had a lot of great moments in Tampa I’m going to cherish forever. They really raised
me and grew me. I was a kid when I got there. They turned me into — I’d like to say — a good man. … With all that said, it prepared me for when they traded me to the Padres to be ready for this opportunity and take advantage of it. It’s a team that is very talented all around. I’m super excited about that. I’m thankful they traded the prospects they had to trade to get me over here and get on this team. All in all, I’m thankful on both ends.”
While it was his 3.24 career ERA and 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings over the past three seasons that led the Padres to send three of their top 14 prospects and catcher Francisco Mejia to the Rays, it was clear Snell was intrigued by his new team’s personality — and that he will fit in just fine.
“I know everybody is going to be challenging each other on who has the most drip,” the 2018 Cy Young Award winner said, referring to the Padres’ collective cool. “… This team is definitely swaggy. I’m excited about that.”
There is also the fact the Padres were third in the majors in runs scored last season (nine spots ahead of the Rays). With the trades for Snell and Yu Darvish and signing of Ha-Seong Kim the previous two days, the Padres projected team WAR jumped to 43.6, behind only the Dodgers (44.3).
“They’re super exciting,” Snell said. “They have a team that plays with a lot of fun. They’re swaggy, and they can swing the bat. That’s the first thing I’m going to say — they can swing it. You’ve got (Manny) Machado, (Fernando) Tatis, (Eric) Hosmer, Wil (Myers), Jake (Cronenworth), (Tommy) Pham. How can I forget Tommy? That’s my dawg.”
Snell, 28, grasped the serendipity of being reunited with Pham, coming as it did just more than a year after Snell’s profanity-laced rant about Pham being traded to the Padres last December went viral.
In the Twitch video, Snell laid his forehead in the palm of his hand before saying, “We gave Pham up for Renfroe and damn (expletive) prospect.”
On Tuesday, Snell said, “Being reunited with him, I love it because I know … the anger, the controlled passion that he brings. It’s going to be fun. I love pitching with him. I’m definitely looking forward to it because he says a lot of these guys play with that kind of passion.”
Besides also reuniting with Myers, who played with the Rays in 2013 and ’14, and reliever Emilio Pagan, a Tampa teammate in 2019, Snell also frequently will see some other players he became familiar with in October. Snell made two starts vs. the Dodgers in the World Series, allowing three runs and a .118 average in 10 innings.
“I don’t think you’re ever going to be excited to face a team that is that lethal,” Snell said of the World Series winner and eight-time defending NL West champions. “But you’re always up for the challenge and you’re always ready. It’s exciting to me because I faced them those two times. I succeeded, but they’re going to be doing their work. I’m going to have to do my work to get better and know what they’re going to look for and what they’ve done recently. … I’m definitely looking forward to pitching against them. It’s going to be a tough division. It’s going to be tough to win the division, but I really can’t wait for it.”