San Francisco Giants They are coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in the franchise’s long and storied history.

Now three years after a 107-win campaign, there’s an increasingly widespread sense that it was a fluke and that the team’s talent is much closer to what they’ve shown us since.

Although it is always difficult for the Giants to compete against opponents, things were supposed to be very different this year. San Diego Padres And Los Angeles DodgersThe latter is still celebrating its second World Series Championship in five years.

This past offseason, the organization acquired guys like Matt Chapman and then-reigning defending, undisputed National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

San Francisco signed Snell to a two-year, $62 million deal that includes a player option for the 2025 season; It was a small detail that turned everything upside down.

Snell chose not to exercise his player option, deciding that he would rather enter the 2025 MLB free agency class.

Keith’s Law Athletic Snell has been the seventh-best free agent and third-best starting pitcher available this winter.

“He walks a lot of guys, but he misses a ton of at-bats and his stuff causes a lot of weak contact,” Law writes, “even if he doesn’t win any awards, he can still be an above-average starter.”

To say Snell walked a lot of guys might be an understatement, as even during the 2023 Cy Young campaign, the lefty walked 99 batters, the most in Major League Baseball.

Although he managed to cut down on walks this year, he gave up free bases more than most with a 10.5 percent walk rate.

Missing at-bats are Snell’s calling card, and the pitcher has been doing it with ease for years, carrying a 32.1 percent strikeout rate from the start of the 2018 season to this year and has never seen that rate dip below 30 percent. time.

With Snell officially deciding to opt out of his deal with the Giants and enter free agency, the number of available starting pitchers on the market has increased.

With two Cy Young Awards to his name, Snell has proven he can be the best player on any opposing team and could play for another team as early as Monday.