Giants sign Cy Young winner Snell to a $62 million deal
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and the San Francisco Giants have agreed to a $62 million, two-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday night.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical. Snell has the right to opt out after this season and become a free agent.
Snell gets a $17 million signing bonus payable on Jan. 15, 2026, and a $15 million salary this year. He would get $30 million if he keeps the contract for 2025.
A 30-year-old left-hander, Snell is 71-55 with a 3.20 ERA in 191 starts over eight major league seasons, winning Cy Youngs in 2018 with Tampa Bay and last year with San Diego. He joins a rotation that includes right-handers Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks and lefthander Kyle Harrison.
Seoul trip a return home for SS Kim
Shohei Ohtani has received the most attention as his Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres prepare to launch the Major League Baseball season with the first regular season games in South Korea.
But the two-game series starting on Wednesday also is a triumphant homecoming for Padres shortstop Ha-seong Kim, coming off a dominant season and returning to the Gocheok Sky Dome.
Kim played for the Kiwoom Heroes for seven seasons before signing with San Diego in 2020. He played down questions about being overshadowed by Ohtani, the Dodgers’ newly signed Japanese star, and said his focus was helping his team get off to a positive start against division rivals.
“When an Mvp-level player arrives at a team, of course the attention is going to go that way. Our team has lots of good players, too, and I think Korean fans will just love the fact that Major League Baseball is being played in Seoul,” Kim said Tuesday.
Urquidy out with forearm strain
Astros starter José Urquidy has a forearm muscle strain and will most likely begin the season on the injured list, manager Joe Espada said Monday, a blow to the right-hander and Houston’s rotation with less than two weeks before opening day.
Urquidy returned to Houston for an MRI exam after experiencing soreness in his elbow area during a minor league game. Urquidy will not throw “for a few days” at least, and Espada said it is “fair to say that he won’t be ready … to open the season on the active roster.”
Espada said team doctors did not provide any information on the status of Urquidy’s ligament. Matt Kawahara
Odds and ends
The Reds are exploring their options after starting center fielder TJ Friedl broke his right wrist on a diving play last Saturday. Friedl, diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture in the distal radius, will be out for an undetermined portion of the season . ... Shane Bieber will start the Guardians’ opener for the fifth straight season. The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner made just 21 starts last year due to elbow issues.