Tampa Bay Rays: Blake Snell Says Team ‘Chose’ to Underpay Him
By Manny Gómez
Months after securing the 2018 AL Cy Young award, Blake Snell and the Tampa Bay Rays are on the outs. The ace feels the team has “chosen” to underpay him.
Blake Snell established himself as a surefire ace during the 2018 season, his third big league season with the Tampa Bay Rays. He edged out Justin Verlander in the Cy Young voting by 7% points by leading all of baseball in ERA (1.89), ERA+ (219), and H/9 (5.6) last season.
Snell accomplished this feat by putting together one of the most dominant seasons for a starting pitcher in recent memory. In 31 games started, Snell allowed 1 or fewer runs in 23 of them. He allowed more than 3 runs in a start exactly three times.
He also did all of this approximately 62 service days before he could become arbitration eligible, which would allow him to make a case for a considerable raise. This year, the cut off is 2 years, 134 days (written as 2.134), Snell only has 2 years, 72 days (2.072) of service.
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Instead, because he is still under team control, the Rays have the final say in how they compensate the ace starter. They have chosen to compensate Snell, who made $558,200 last season, with a $15,500 raise.
Through his agent, Adam Karon and Tripper Johnson of Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon, Blake Snell released a statement condemning the Rays decision to underpay him.
"“The Rays have the right under the collective bargaining agreement to renew me at or near the league-minimum salary. They also have the ability to more adequately compensate me, as other organizations have done with players who have similar achievements to mine. The Rays chose the former. I will have no further comment and look forward to competing with my teammates and field staff in our quest to win the World Series in 2019.”"
“It’s disappointing,’’ Snell said to Mark Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “You want fair. But at the same time they don’t have to do it, so I understand the business side of it.’’
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After the 2018 season, Forbes released a list of team valuations. While last on the list, the Tampa Bay Rays still hade a modest stream of revenue totaling $219M. That’s more than enough to pay their rising star.