SNELL AND HADER REJECT PADRES’ QUALIFYING OFFERS
Blake Snell could become the seventh pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in both leagues today, all the more reason to expect a big payday this winter.
Snell and Josh Hader rejected $20.325 million qualifying offers as expected, positioning the team to receive something as the top players at their positions wade into free agency. The news came hours after the Padres announced the passing of Chairman Peter Seidler.
The Padres held onto both Snell and Hader at the trade deadline in hopes of orchestrating a late push into the postseason. That decision came with a significant risk of downside as teams that cross the competitive tax threshold — as the Padres have done repeatedly in recent years under Seidler — receive compensation after the end of the fourth round instead of after the first or Competitive Balance B rounds as compensation for departing players who turn down qualifying offers.
The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, the Blue Jays’ Matt Chapman, the Cubs’ Cody Bellinger, the Phillies’ Aaron Nola and the Twins’ Sonny Gray also rejected qualifying offers ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, as first reported by MLB.com, as teams check off the minutia ahead of next month’s winter meetings. That included adding righthander Jairo Iriarte to the 40-man roster to protect him from the upcoming Rule 5 draft and outrighting righthander Reiss Knehr to Triple-A El Paso as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery.
The 40-man roster is now at 34 with the addition of Iriarte, a 21-year-old ranked No. 6 in the organization by MLB.com after striking out 128 over 901 innings (3.49
ERA) while rising from high Single-A Fort Wayne to Double-A San Antonio.
Of course, the Padres’ todo list is headlined by filling the vacancy created when Bob Melvin left to manage the San Francisco Giants, although that search will be temporarily halted in the wake of Seidler’s passing.
Beyond the manager, Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller will have to chart a course as to how to replace both Snell and Hader while paring some $50 million from last year’s payroll, third highest in the game. Hader is likely looking for numbers similar to Edwin Diaz’s five-year, $102 million deal with Mets last winter as the top available closer, while Snell could approach a $200 million payday as one of the top available arms in a thin starting pitching market, especially if he joins Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy
Johnson, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer as the only pitchers to win Cy Young Awards in both leagues.
Four of those pitchers are Hall of Famers, one (Clemens) would be if it weren’t for PED suspicions and the other (Scherzer) will be five years after he retires.
Time will tell for Snell, who won his first Cy Young with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 and led the majors this year in ERA (2.25), ERAplus (182) and hit rate (5.8 per nine innings).
Snell also led the majors with 99 walks, but he struck out 234, second in the NL, and posted a mind-boggling 1.20 ERA over his final 23 starts.
Snell would be the fifth Padre to win a Cy Young, joining Perry (1978), Randy Jones (1976), Mark Davis (1989) and Jake Peavy (2007).