Blake Snell has had an interesting career. For most of his ten seasons, he’s pitched like a solid mid-rotation starter. But he has also mixed in two outstanding seasons in which he was near unhittable and earned a Cy Young award both times.
Because of this inconsistency, it isn’t surprising that teams haven’t known exactly how to value him. He was a free agent after one of those Cy Young seasons in 2023, and his agent, Scott Boras, was famously asking for a huge contract.
Teams were wary to give him that considering his career indicated he wouldn’t necessarily duplicate that effort moving forward. Snell lingered on the market until mid-March when he signed with the Giants (perennially the last resort for prominent free agents) on a two-year deal with an opt-out after the first year.
Snell got off to a slow start, and many people blamed his late signing. While he rebounded to have a solid season, he also spent two stints on the Injured List. Apparently unworried that the lack of durability might hinder him on the free agent market, Snell opted out of his deal. That proved wise as the Dodgers came calling with a five-year, $182 million dollar contract.
This season has unfolded much like the last one did: Snell has been good when he’s pitched, but he hasn’t pitched all that often. After making his first two starts of the season, shoulder inflammation kept him out of action until August.
Since his return, Snell has pitched well. But the big question is: Can he stay healthy throughout what the Dodgers hope is a long postseason run?
X-Men character of the series
Mr. Sinister
Recent years have greatly muddied the character of Mr. Sinister. Now, he’s apparently just one of four clones of scientist Nathaniel Essex, in his quest to become an all-powerful cosmic entity.
Side rant: The writer most responsible for this change is Jonathan Hickman. Some people love Hickman’s writing, but I find his habit of massively retconning character’s backstories to be tiring. His comics also aren’t especially “fun.” For some people, that’s a plus, but when I’m reading a comic book, I don’t necessarily want to have to put in that much mental effort.
Then again, almost any incarnation of Mr. Sinister is a far cry from what Chris Claremont originally intended for the character: A mutant child unable to age, so he created a “boogeyman” avatar that acted out his impulses. That explained why Sinister looks the way he does and why he chose such a lame name. Since later writers abandoned that and went the generic mad scientist route, it seems that Sinister just had awful taste.
Anyway, I chose Sinister for the Dodgers analogy because he’s constantly tinkering with mutations and genetic structures in order to obtain perfection, never worrying about what the cost will be.
Additional thought about the series
As we know, the Phillies failed to take care of business on Sunday, and we didn’t get to see an on-field celebration for the NL East title. Now, it seems likely that they’ll clinch the division well after midnight, and many of us will have to enjoy the clips of Garrett Stubbs and Ranger Suarez celebrating when we wake up.
It’s also possible that the Phillies lose on Monday and then see the Mets lose on Tuesday before play begins in LA. (I’ll assume they’d wait until after their game to start celebrating.) Regardless of how the clinching occurs, let’s hope it doesn’t cause them to lose their edge (or be too hungover). The division title is great, but this is a very important series in its own right.
One win in this series would go a long way towards securing one of the NL’s two playoff byes. (And no, the Phillies would not be better off without a bye.) It would also be nice for the Phillies to show they continue to play well against a potential playoff opponent.
It will be fascinating to see how Shohei Ohtani fares in this series. The Phillies have been remarkably good at controlling Ohtani throughout his career, limiting him to a .662 OPS with one home run in 15 games. When these teams met up in April, he was just 1-11 with five strikeouts.
Have the Phillies truly “figured out” how to pitch him? While I’m sure they’ve been especially careful with him, I would imagine most teams are careful when pitching to him, and that hasn’t stopped him from leading the league in OPS. My fear is that there’s some regression coming, and my hope is that it doesn’t come in a playoff series where he hits about seven home runs in five games.
