Giants place 2023 NL Cy Young winner on injured list

The Giants scratched Blake Snell from his scheduled start Wednesday and will place the reigning NL Cy Young winner on the 15-day injured list with a left adductor strain, retroactive to April 23, per a team announcement. Reliever Landen Roupp is up from Triple-A Sacramento to take his spot on the active roster. Right-hander Ryan Walker will open a bullpen game for the Giants in his place.

The news is the latest bump in what has been an incredibly frustrating year for Snell so far. He lingered in free agency for an extended period of time, not finding the mega deal that he was surely looking for. Instead, he pivoted towards a short-term deal and got one from the Giants, but that pact wasn’t agreed to until March 18.

He wasn’t able to get into any official spring training games, instead pitching in some simulated games before quickly making his debut for the Giants on April 8. But he has shown some clear signs of rust so far, with his first three starts resulting in 11 2/3 innings pitched with 15 earned runs allowed. He has only struck out 20.7% of the batters he has faced so far this year, well south of the 31.5% rate he had last year and his career rate of 29.6%.

Snell was being victimized by a .410 batting average on balls in play and 39.6% strand rate that were both unsustainably lucky. His 4.62 FIP and 3.95 SIERA both suggest he was due for a correction just based on normalized luck going forward. It also would have been fair to expect him to just get better results as he got further removed from his truncated spring training and into midseason form.

Unfortunately, all of that will now be put on hold for a while. The club hasn’t yet provided a timeline of how long they expect Snell to be out of action but the IL placement suggests they expect him to miss at least a couple of turns through the rotation.

Snell now joins Robbie Ray, Alex Cobb and Tristan Beck in the group of Giant starters on the injured list. Cobb and Ray each underwent surgery last year and are still working towards getting back on the mound. Beck underwent vascular surgery in March to address an aneurysm in his upper right arm and has been on the injured list all year as well.

With Snell now joining them, the rotation is left with Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks and Keaton Winn. It seems they are planning a bullpen game Wedneday and may be able to wait before deciding on a fifth starter. They have an off-day Thursday and then another on Monday, meaning they could potentially get by with a four-man rotation until next weekend.

Roupp has starting experience in the minors and could be an option. Mitch White was just acquired from the Blue Jays recently and he would be another option. Sean Hjelle was just activated from the injured list a few days ago but has started in the past. Kai-Wei Teng and Daulton Jefferies are on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment. One of the club’s top prospects is Carson Whisenhunt, who is throwing in Triple-A. However, he has an 8.79 ERA on the year and isn’t yet on the 40-man.

For Snell, the length of his absence and how it impacts the rest of his season could perhaps influence his opt-out decision. The deal he signed with the Giants comes with a $62M guarantee, though with some money deferred. He gets $32M for the 2024 season, in the form of a $15M salary and $17M signing bonus that isn’t paid out until January 2026, regardless of whether he opts out or not. If he decides to stay for 2025, he’ll get $30M, with half of that money deferred until 2027.

Snell won the National League Cy Young last year when he posted a 2.25 ERA for the Padres and it would have been an easy decision for him to opt out if he performed anywhere close to that level again this year. But now that he’s off to a slow start and is set to miss some time, the decision becomes more murky and his future health and performance will be in the spotlight in the months to come.