Blake Snell threw a gem on Friday, striking out ten over seven while allowing the Mets just one hit.
The Mets are also playing without many players’ limbs right now, though, so let’s run this anyway.
When the Rays traded Blake Snell this offseason, there was a big #badforthegame backlash. It wasn’t universal—some pointed out that nobody comes to Rays games, that the Rays are somehow consistently in contention these days, and that Snell and the Rays clashed a few times in their approach (see: “slapdick prospect,” World Series exit), with Snell wanting a more traditional, more emotional, less calculative approach to the game than what the Rays are about. But there was a backlash, an expression of a feeling that this shouldn’t be what baseball is about, an expression of disappointment in the Rays for not wanting to spend more money, an expression of frustration that there are advantages to losing if one’s not going to win.
But now…
The Rays are winning.
Entering today, the Rays have the second-best record in baseball and the best record in the American League. They’re a game and a half ahead of the Red Sox for the lead in the AL East. They’re two games better than the Dodgers. They’re two and a half games better than the Padres, for whom Blake Snell has turned in 0.7 fWAR while two of the four players traded for him—Francisco Mejía and Luis Patiño—have combined for 0.5 fWAR in Tampa Bay.
This shouldn’t last. Over the rest of the season, FanGraphs expects Snell to be worth about one more win than the Mejía/Patiño combination. But Cole Wilcox, another part of the deal, has a 2.35 FIP at A-ball, and Blake Hunt, the final part of the deal, has a 135 wRC+ at high-A ball, and Hunt’s nearly a top-100 prospect while Xavier Edwards, the infamous “slapdick prospect” who wasn’t traded for Snell but Snell was initially unhappy about the Rays acquiring, is a top-100 prospect himself, and neither of those guys are the top dudes in the Tampa Bay farm system, all of which goes to say that the Rays can probably spare that win this season in exchange for a few (or more than a few) wins down the line.
The thing about selling high is that you’re selling high. You’re getting the most or close to the most for a player that you can. But you’re also giving them up at a time when they seem to present the most value for you.
Selling high is one way to consistently contend (which, ostensibly, is what fans want out of baseball teams, as the alternative is failing to contend, intentionally or otherwise). It’s something the Rays do well. It’s something Cleveland has done well. It’s something even the Cubs seemed to try to do this offseason, trading an ace of their own to the Padres. It’s a viable way to contend, and while it hurts the nostalgic guts that want teams to stick with players for forever, and while it in the immediate sense always feels like an abandonment of championship aspirations, and while it does lessen the individual season championship probability in exchange for widening championship windows (something that’s fodder for a great baseball/business debate), it’s not an effort to lose. Especially, as they keep teaching us, when the Rays do it.
