San Francisco Giants Cy Young Ace is officially a free agent after using his opt-out

The San Francisco Giants are officially in the offseason, highlighted by Friday afternoon news that their superstar, two-time Cy Young ace Blake Snell, has exercised his opt-out clause and is officially a free agent according to a report from USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale . .

It’s a move by Snell that doesn’t come as a huge surprise and was seemingly widely expected, even though if he joined in 2025 he would have been paid $38.5 million in the second year of the two-year deal he signed with the Giants last winter . Snell had a disastrous start to the contract and was on the injured list for a while, but throughout the season he was virtually untouchable and looked like his old self.

After the strong run to end the season, Snell’s decision to re-enter the open market is certainly not shocking as he is represented by Scott Boras, who has always been infamous for pushing his clients into the open to enter the market whenever possible. If the entire season had gone the same way it did at the start, he probably would have taken the guaranteed money. Snell posted an 11.57 ERA over three starts in April and an 8.59 ERA over two starts in May.

By July, however, Snell was back constructing opposing lineups with a 0.75 ERA over four starts, a 1.64 in August over six starts, and a 1.00 over four starts in September, breaking the season ended miraculously with a 3.12 for the year as a whole. This came on the heels of a career season in 2023 with the Padres in which Snell won his second Cy Young award.

Without a doubt, someone will likely offer the ace a shorter-term contract with a similar AAV, but only through the 2025 season, or even the possibility of a mega-nine-figure deal for the rest of the productive years of his career. Snell turns 32 years old in December and has proven he still has plenty left in the tank, so how aggressively San Francisco looks to bring him back will be fascinating to see how it plays out.