Blake Snell on Trade to Padres: This Team Is Bound to Get a World Series
Fresh off a World Series berth with the Tampa Bay Rays, new San Diego Padres ace Blake Snell is ready to return to baseball’s biggest stage with his new club.
The 2018 American League Cy Young-winner joined 97.3 The Fan’s Gwynn & Chris show shortly after his blockbuster trade was completed and set the bar high for his arrival.
“Being able to to come to San Diego with this team, and the front office making moves the way they’re making them, it’s hard not to be excited for what’s going to happen the next couple years here,” Snell said. “This team is definitely bound to get a World Series. It’s something that’s right in front of us and we’ve got to start working.”
Aside from Snell, the Padres are reportedly close to completing a second deal for top-of-the-rotation arm in Yu Darvish from the Chicago Cubs—who’s fresh off finishing second in NL Cy Young voting after a stellar 2020.
It’s clear San Diego is all in on winning now. It just doesn’t entirely take the sting away from Snell after Tampa Bay developed him.
“They really raised me and groomed me,” Snell told Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. “I was a kid when I got there and they turned me into a, I’d like to say, a good man. So, yeah, there’s a lot to be thankful for there. There’s a lot I’m going to be appreciative of. A lot of relationships that I’m very happy I was able to make. But, you know, with all that said, it prepared me for when they traded me to the Padres to be ready for this opportunity and to take advantage of it.”
Speaking to Gwynn and Chris, Snell said he expected the Rays to attempt to move him next year, when he had just one year remaining on his deal, as opposed to now. But he’s seen Tampa Bay move elite talent at the height of their trade value before and wasn’t surprised to find out the Padres were able to pry him from the Rays.
Snell started 108 games over five years with the Rays and compiled a 3.24 career ERA with a 1.237 WHIP over 556 innings. Most indicative of his skills are the 648 strikeouts he’s racked up with just 232 walks.
Now he’ll get to showcase that talent in San Diego where the Padres look to surge past the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and deliver the first title in franchise history.
