Recently, Blak Snell spoke out about his displeasure of being renewed through arbitration where he stood to make about $573,000 in 2019. The Tampa Bay Rays then decided to reward Snell for his breakout season by signing him to a 5-year, $50 million contract. The extension will take Snell through his age 30 season in 2023. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reported the extension and the details of the deal.
BREAKING: Reigning AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell and the Tampa Bay Rays are in agreement on a five-year, $50 million contract extension, league sources tell ESPN. The deal runs through Snell’s age-30 season and does not include any options.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 21, 2019
Snell had an amazing 2018 season, he took home the 2018 American League Cy Young Award for the Tampa Bay Rays. His 2018 stat line featured a 21-5 record with a 1.89 ERA, 0.974 WHIP, and an 11.0 K/9 Rating. The Rays obviously want to keep their ace happy, so when he expressed his displeasure about being renewed for only $573,000 which is quite low for a Cy Young Winner.
Besides Snell, there have also been some other extension in the past few days like Alex Bregman’s 6-year, $100 million extension, Mike Trout’s 12-year $430 million extension, and Paul Goldschmidt’s 5-year $130 million extension. Snell and Bregman both had their contracts renewed for little to no money, and with tensions high between owners and teams, they needed to spring into action. The teams wanted to lock down their players before any issues develop between the two sides. Snell has not been bitter to the Rays at all and seemed excited to finally knock a deal out with the Rays to stick around.
