Oooh, that Snell
The Giants were the team to go for a second helping of the Boras Four, I'm sure that won't affect the Cubs


Get more from Andy Dolan in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app
Less than two weeks before opening day the Cubs starting rotation consists of a guy who was really, really good last year (Justin Steele), one of our heroes trying to will his shoulder through another season (Kyle Hendricks) our new favorite Cub (Shōta Imanaga) and some random fat guys (Jordan Wicks, Javier Assad, and the lower back ravaged Jimmy Taillon). It’s just too bad that the only way to acquire an impact starting pitcher would be to trade some of the precious prospects from the system.
BREAKING NEWS: San Francisco Giants sign two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to a one-year, $31 million deal with a player option for $30 million in 2025.
Huh.
So it only cost them money? And probably only money for one year? Well, hey, I don’t see how we could expect the Cubs to do that.
I mean, just how many $47 plastic helmets full of nachos would you have to sell to pay for something like that?
The Cubs happily sit in a division full of mid to low market teams, and they didn’t have to worry that the Brewers or Reds or Pirates would splurge for Snell, and the Cardinals are being careful not to spend with their local TV contract in peril. So the Cubs are happy to repeat their “let’s win 84 in 2024” mantra.
Here’s the problem with that. The Giants know they aren’t going to win their division because the Dodgers are over there and they could fall out of bed and win 100 games this season. But that didn’t stop them from doing some late spring “bargain” shopping for Jorge Soler, Matt Chapman and Snell. They now have, in Snell and Logan Webb, the guys who finished 1-2 in the NL Cy Young voting last season on their staff, and Robbie Ray, who won the AL Cy Young in 2021 will be back piching for them by mid-season. Why? Because they look at their other route to the playoffs and see that it might take quite a few wins to get one of the three wild card spots this year.