San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Return to Tampa leads Snell to reminisce
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It has been four years since new San Francisco Giants lefty Blake Snell walked around Tropicana Field, but the hallways are so familiar that Snell couldn’t help but notice everything that has changed.
The first thing he noticed: a makeshift barbershop set up near the home clubhouse.
“Saw a lot of new additions,” Snell said. “The barber, that wasn’t here before. … Just cool to see how many years have gone and what’s new.”
Save for the Rays’ constantly changing roster, not much else has changed at the Trop since the Tampa Bay Rays traded Snell to the San Diego Padres in the 2020 offseason, months after the team lost in the pandemic-impacted World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Manager Kevin Cash and pitching coach Kyle Snyder are two holdovers from Snell’s days who will watch him pitch on the Tropicana Field mound on Sunday for the first time in Giants black and orange instead of Rays blue.
“I got really excited because I enjoy pitching in front of Kyle, Cash,” Snell said. “I’ve pitched in front of them so many times and they supported me throughout. To be able to pitch in front of them is such an amazing feeling.”
The Rays drafted Snell in 2011 and developed him in their minor
league system for just over five years before his big-league debut in 2016. In 2018, Snell won his first of two Cy Young Awards and cemented himself — briefly — as the face of a franchise that rarely holds on to its players.
“I was raised through the system, so when I got here there was so much love and care for me and attention to me that they made this place feel like home,” Snell said. “I’m excited to see what it feels like on Sunday.”
He added, “I got nothing but
love, I love everybody there. I can’t be more thankful to be drafted by them, developed. I was in the minors for five years, at the time you get pretty upset about it but looking back I was really thankful for all those years and how much energy all those coaches put in to help me.”
Snell’s final pitch with the Rays wasn’t thrown in St. Petersburg, but at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where Major League Baseball hosted a neutral-site World Series during
the pandemic. The Rays were down 3-2 in the series to the Dodgers and Snell was pitching to try and send it to a Game 7. He had nine strikeouts and was just an out into the sixth inning, but after allowing a hit to Austin Barnes, Cash made a call to the bullpen for reliever Nick Anderson.
Cameras caught Snell cursing Cash’s decision and shaking his head when the manager came to the mound for the ball. Anderson lost the Rays’ 1-0 lead and the Dodgers won it all, prompting
debates about whether Cash was right to pull his ace.
Snell has since had time to reflect on the emotions of that moment between manager and player.
“Everyone gets on Cash about it, but his job is to manage and my job is to play and I respect him. I always will. He’s a great manager,” Snell said. “He’s learned from it; he’s only getting better and better. He’s still such a young manager.”
Snell pitched against the Rays in San Diego once last season and credited the Padres trade as a maturing moment for him. It was in the move that he learned how to manage unfamiliarity — something that is aiding him in his recent move to San Francisco.
“There’s so many more experiences I had with San Diego that I couldn’t get” with Tampa Bay, he said. “The dynamics, the team. When I left here I thought it was going to be such an easy transition to the Padres and that turned out difficult. I’ve learned so much now with the Giants, I feel even more comfortable.”