Mariners Offseason Free Agency Target: Blake Snell should come home to Seattle

With the World Series behind us, and another beast in the AL West having risen to torment the Mariners and their fans, it's more clear than ever that the current leadership group in Seattle needs a strong offseason. The Astros are aging, but they're still a legitimate top 5 team in baseball, and the Rangers on paper will be stronger in 2024 than this world championship team. Running it back with the 2023 Mariners squad is simply not going to be an acceptable outcome from the media and fans.

President Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander have a lot of work to do. This offense needs to replace Teoscar Hernandez in right field, as well as finding a true impact designated hitter to help guide this young offense. This doesn't even take into account the serious concerns I have about Eugenio Suarez, Ty France, and Jarred Kelenic being positive players in 2024.

In order to hang with the powers in the Lone Star state, the Mariners probably need 2 (probably 3) legitimate upgrades on offense to feel like that side of the roster is ready to win in October. So clearly the Seattle Mariners need to go get offense first this offseason, right? 

Wrong, Jerry and Justin (and probably John Stanton more than anyone) need to attack free agency first by going into the starting pitching market, and bring home a Seattle native, and one of the most unique and talented pitchers on the market, Blake Snell.

Blake Snell: One of the best in the game

Blake Snell is a soon-to-be 31-year-old ace who is also a soon-to-be two-time Cy Young award winner. It's crazy to think that Snell was 1-6 with a 5.40 ERA on May 19th. From there, Snell became an alien, going 13-3 with a 1.20 ERA. While the Padres were one of the biggest disappointments in baseball, Snell was a bright light, likely to become just the 7th pitcher to ever win the Cy Young in both leagues.

Snell went 14-9 with a league-best 2.25 ERA. He finished 3rd in baseball with 234 K's. He gave up the 5th fewest home runs, giving up only 1 homer per every 12 innings. Luis Castillo gave up a homer every 7 innings pitched in comparison, and Castillo was in the AL Cy Young hunt until the final two weeks of the season. His .181 opponents batting average and 182 ERA+ are easily the best in baseball. 

While his Baseball Savant page is beaming with red all over, he's got a few serious concerns. First, his command is a concern. His opponent's average is very low, but part of that is because he walks a ton. His 99 walks easily were the most in baseball, 16 more than the second guy. Simply put, guys can't hit him, but he'll constantly put himself in trouble, which is far from the organizational viewpoint of "Controlling the Zone".

The second concern with Blake Snell is his inability to go deep into games. In his final 23 starts this season, Blake Snell only pitched into the 7th inning 3 times. He's never going to be considered that horse of the rotation that will eat innings, because of the lack of command. 

The final concern is whether Blake Snell has figured it out. Snell definitely had a rough adjustment period after being traded from Tampa Bay to San Diego, coming off the 2020 World Series changing move by Rays manager Kevin Cash to pull Snell when it looked like he had game 6 on ice. In his 8 year career, Snell has looked like a solid #3 starter in 5 of those years, a below-average pitcher in one season, and easily the best pitcher on the planet in 2018 and 2023. There's risk involved about what kind of player Seattle would get.