2:00pm: Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports the yearly breakdown (Twitter link). Snell will be paid a $3MM signing bonus and earn $1MM in 2019. He’ll then be paid salaries of $7MM, $10.5MM, $12.5MM and $16MM in the subsequent four seasons. That $16MM salary in 2023 can increase by up to $2MM based on his placement in the Cy Young race.
1:50pm: The Rays have formally announced the contract as well as the terms of the deal. Snell can earn an additional $2MM via incentives, per the team.
1:43pm: The Rays have reached an agreement on a five-year, $50MM contract with reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports (on Twitter). There are no options included on the contract, which will buy out all of Snell’s arbitration seasons and what would have been his first free-agent year. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that Snell’s deal does not include a no-trade clause. Snell is represented by Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon.
Snell, 26, will receive the largest contract ever guaranteed to a pitcher with between two and three years of service time, breaking the previous record held by Gio Gonzalez, as can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker. (Miles Mikolas could technically be considered in that category, though as a player who had established himself overseas and would’ve otherwise been eligible for free agency, his extension was under wholly different circumstances.) Despite the fact that he has less service time and was not yet eligible for arbitration, Snell rode that Cy Young Award to a guarantee that tops the sums promised to both Luis Severino (four years, $40MM) and Aaron Nola (four years, $45MM) earlier this offseason.
Because Snell was still a year from arbitration, he was still a year from cashing in on his first seven-figure payday. Even if one were to aggressively forecast what he’d make in arbitration by suggesting he’d top Dallas Keuchel’s record $7.25MM first-time arbitration salary for a pitcher, Snell likely would’ve topped out around $35-40MM between now and the end of his arbitration eligibility. He’s possibly trading as much as $20MM in that would-be first year of free agency in exchange for the up-front payday, but that’s in a best-case scenario for his performance. A more realistic forecast of his future would need to account for the downside of injury and regression/decline.
The contract for Snell comes just weeks after the left-hander took umbrage with the organization’s decision to renew his 2019 contract for $573,700 — a raise of just $15K over the preceding season (at a time when the league-minimum salary increased by $5K).
“The Rays have the right under the collective bargaining agreement to renew me at or near the league-minimum salary,” Snell told Topkin at the time. “They also have the ability to to more adequately compensate me, as other organizations have done with players who have similar achievements to mine. The Rays chose the former.” At this point, one would imagine that renewal amounts to little more than water under the bridge with a new record-setting extension locked into place.
Snell, the No. 52 overall pick by the Rays back in 2011 and a longtime top prospect, solidified himself as an MLB-caliber starter in 2017 season with 24 starts of 4.04 ERA ball. However, he thrust himself into the ranks of the game’s elite pitchers in 2018 when he overpowered opponents with a 1.89 ERA with 11.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 31 starts. Snell’s 15.1 percent swinging-strike rate was the fourth-best mark among all qualified MLB starters, trailing only Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Carlos Carrasco while tying him with NL Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. His 33.1 percent opponents’ chase rate on pitches out of the strike zone ranked 18th among MLB starters.
It’s the second extension of the week for the Rays, who also locked up promising young infielder/outfielder Brandon Lowe on a six-year, $24MM pact. Looking ahead, Snell joins Lowe and center fielder Kevin Kiermaier as the only players on the Rays’ roster to have a guaranteed contract beyond the 2020 season. Kiermaier’s deal will come off the books after the 2022 season, while Snell is controlled through 2023 and Lowe through 2024 (plus a pair of club options). That trio won’t combine for more than $34.2MM in any single season in which their contracts overlap, leaving even the cost-conscious Rays with a bit of flexibility.
Guess he can’t be too mad about his $18K raise now.
What a great extension for the Rays to get done.
It’s a Band-Aid extension, that bought out his Arb years.
Feel he good as gone, but a lot can happen in five years
What does a Band-Aid extension even mean? Is it somehow different than the extensions other teams give out?
Good extension for the Rays.
Good
Get that coin!
Even if he doesn’t replicate last season (would be hard to do but he’s very good still) 10 million per year while buying out his arbitration years is an absolute steal lmao
Arbitration is dying or will get a reform at this rate. Extensionmania 2019
Could for Snell he deserves it!
Why sign such a lowball offer.
He gets security now and will still be in a great position during his free agency year
And looking at the future of FA, it sure looks like the extension route is the way to go and probably a win win.
Besides, it’s only one year of FA (post the ancient age of 30).
Because he could blow his arm out tomorrow.
Time value of money!!
The week of extensions continues!
But good for Snell to get the extension. One of the newer stars in baseball
Steve Adams has agreed to a five year extension with Trade Rumors worth 10 million dollars.
Yeah, he wishes.
I hear it’s a five year deal with options for a sixth year
If you can negotiate that deal for me with Tim Dierkes, I will give you a 50 percent commission, ha.
Working on a package now to forward on to Mr. Dierkes.. 🙂
Hallelujah!
This team is so cheap they spend no money blah blah blah blah blah. They aren’t even trying to win
Jameson Tillon is next I bet unless he wants to walk from Pittsburgh
Good For Him. !
One more cy young winner that needs to be extended
That is great. Good job Tampa Bay Rays. Paul Goldschmidt should be next signing an extension with the Cards.
Nice to see the Rays finally shell out the funds to keep a phenomenal young talent.
If teams are loathe to go through arbitration and unwilling to pay veterans what they’ve gotten in the past (and I agree with this), then the service time requirement should be shortened. The only option left is to pay the youngsters what they’re due.
The Rays bought one additional year of control so it’s simply a cost control contract, as Blake would have made more via arb had he stayed healthy and pitched reasonably well.
A win-win for both player and team.
He makes sweet golf balls too.
Great move by the Rays! They lock up a stud frontline pitcher who probably would have vastly exceeded this amount in 3 rounds of Arb + Year 1 of free agency. And if TB is unable to get their new stadium, Snell would bring a treasure chest of prospects should they decide to trade him after year 2 or 3 of this deal.
For Snell, he is guaranteed to be set for life and protects himself against a devistating injury or a dip in production. This is really a win-win for both sides.
The year of the extension continues. Don’t sleep on those Rays. Brutal division, but they can surprise people.
I was so happy for him when I saw the headline. I’m loving all of these extensions.
Good deal both ways. Snell gets paid more than he would likely get through the arbitration process. He gives up a year of free agency, but he gains security. He is 26 now and would have been 30-31 when he entered free agency. He’ll only be a year older and that should not hurt his market that much.
Rays get a great pitcher and lock him up for an affordable rate, one that will not hamper them if they do decide to flip him for prospects near the end of the deal, as they have been known to do.
Honestly, I think that is the main thing that needs to happen to combat the current free agent market; get players paid better earlier in their career.
Set for life. Good for him
Depends on if he’s married.
My wife made me a millionaire.
Of course, before that, I was a multi-millionaire.
Good for Snell and good move by the Rays, making it right.
These kids need to be paid accordingly, especially when they’re winning awards.
MLB is obviously pressuring clubs to sign as many extensions as they can. Doing so limits the amount of players who’d favor a strike in a few years; you get very comfortable with that guaranteed money in your pocket.
A fair deal, sufficiently back-loaded that it doesn’t cost the current ownership that much; a bit more, but it provides the security, versus going to arbitration, which is very uncertain.
Stuie’s starting to look a bit like Jeff Loria……
This guy is kinda like a crazy wife who suspects everything like if she were to accuse you of sleeping with your boss… and he was a man
The kind of reply that defines the universe of its author.
Nah dude he’s pretty on point. I’m a Rays fan and read all the comments of their posts. You are constantly complaining no matter what the Rays do. I don’t know why you follow the Rays because you don’t seem like a fan. I bet you are one of the people that gripes on every Topkin article about paying an extra penny tax to fund a new stadium. Why not just follow the Red Sox instead?
Yes!
Locking up some of the young core guys!
Let’s go Rays!
Expect the team to trade him prior to the $10.5m year. If he remains a stud, the cost will be cheap and the haul will be huge.
If someone offers a stupid return I’d say why not? There aren’t too many yr after yr pitching studs around anymore.
I like this more for Snell. Eliminates all the risk of getting non-tendered if something happens to him and he probably wouldn’t have made much more in arbitration anyway. The only downside is it pushes his free agency back by a year. But with the 2023 season being guaranteed as opposed to being in club option form that could end up being a good thing.
You picked the dumbest reason of all to be a negative lmao
Everyone and their mother getting an extension
Isn’t “getting an extension” necessary for motherhood???????
And someone on here said the Rays couldnt pay for Snell…
Great move by the Rays and Snell! .”Fair all around” and Snell will be a FA at age 28.
Couple years off pal
So much for the minimum contract renewal drama. I suspect he already knew it wasn’t going to matter then.
LOL just went back and looked up the article about the renewal just now and was reading it before posting similar below. Hysterical to read that board now!
For a good laugh, go back and read the comments to the article announcing the Rays renewing Snell a couple of weeks ago. Wonder where all those moaning about how the the Rays ruined any chance of ever extending Snell are…… No one seems to be posting saying they got it all wrong……
Collusion by the owners in free agency is the cause for this. Snell should have said no. Lowe would be started in AAA had he declined so I understand him more but look at all the extensions. MLB can now show increased average salary around the league while saving hundreds of millions and having less players started in the minors to gain the extra year.
So much for the commenters around here that said the Rays would regret lowballing him on his tendered contract. With this much money involved, there is no room for grudges.
Is this some kind of joke? A young CY starting pitcher, and that’s all he gets on an extension?
The real question is, why does his pay bother you so much? Seriously, this is just a man’s paycheck. You are neither paying it nor receiving it. It has no impact on your life whatsoever. Why does it bother you?
Well, if his name is CY YOUNG, he would definitely earn more. But it’s Blake Snell (please refer to my earlier joke).
This is just a clearer view of his earnings for their future trade partner. What a joke of a franchise.
How the negotiation started…
Rays: “Blake Snell.”
BS: “Yes.”
Rays: “Is that your real name?”
Damn I was hoping he would be traded. He’ll never win anything in Tampa. Then again. The Rays probably wont stay in Tampa anyways.
Am I missing something? Wasn’t he basically yr to yr and then his arb yrs which also are yr to yr? Extension? Not really. They locked him up….not extended him.