Tampa Bay Rays: Blake Snell is reportedly on the trade block

The Tampa Bay Rays are reportedly willing to trade the 2018 Cy Young winner, Blake Snell, this offseason, keeping with their aversion to pay players big.

The Tampa Bay Rays may be losing two members of their rotation this offseason in Blake Snell and Charlie Morton. Morton could very well leave in free agency, and according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the Rays are open to hearing offers on Snell.

And what a coincidence, Snell was set to receive a $4 million salary bump in 2021.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article regarding the Rays potentially moving out of Tampa Bay. In that article, I went through a number of reasons why the Rays are unable to attract fans despite having some pretty successful teams.

The willingness to trade Blake Snell, a Cy Young winner just two years ago, can be considered one of those reasons.

Snell has played the first five years of his career in Tampa Bay. He’s as homegrown as they come. Fans love homegrown talent. Especially when that homegrown talent is a Cy Young caliber pitcher.

Snell signed a five year, $50 million contract prior to the 2019 season. Thus far, he’s made just $11 million of that contract. And the Rays seem to have no intention of paying the rest of it, despite the fact that he’s their ace and will probably be well worth the AAV on the remaining three years of the deal. In fact, the most expensive Snell will be is in the final year of the deal, making $16 million. That’s not a whole lot for a guy that could win another Cy Young by the time he hits free agency.

But that’s how it goes with the Rays. Squeeze as many affordable years out of your players as you can and dump them onto someone else for a huge prospect haul. They did it with Chris Archer, receiving Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows in return. But Blake Snell is not Chris Archer. Snell is already one of the best pitchers in the game. And the Rays are in a contention window, just a few weeks removed from losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

You just can’t trade your homegrown ace the off-season after a World Series appearance. For any other team, this would be the time to put the proper support staff around him. Bring in the offensive firepower they need to reach the mountaintop. Round out the rest of the rotation. Staple down the bullpen horses to close out the biggest games of the year.

But that’s not how the Rays do things. So Snell will most likely be moved this off-season. Whoever acquires him will have to unload their farm system to do it. And the Rays will continue sporting a roster comprised nearly entirely of players that haven’t hit free agency yet.

If I was a Tampa Bay Rays fan, I’d be pretty ticked off that this rumor is even floating around. The fact that it seems like a near certainty that Snell will be wearing a different uniform in 2021 is a brutal hit to a fanbase that came so close to planning a parade.