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

Now, three years removed from a 107-win campaign, the feeling is becoming more and more widespread that it was a fluke and that the team’s abilities are much closer to what they showed us at over the years that followed.

Things were supposed to be a lot different this year, although it was always going to be difficult for the Giants to compete with the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgersthe latter of which are still celebrating their second World Series championship in the last five years.

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

San Francisco signed Snell to a two-year, $62 million contract that included a player option for the 2025 season, the one little detail that shook everything up.

Snell opted not to exercise his player option, deciding he would prefer to enter the 2025 MLB free agency class.

Keith’s Law Athletics Snell ranked as the seventh-best available free agent this winter and third-best starting pitcher.

“He walks too many guys, but he misses a ton of bats and his stuff generates a lot of weak contact,” Law writes, “enough that he could still be an above-average starter even if he don’t win any prizes.”

To say that Snell walks too many guys may be an understatement, because even in his 2023 Cy Young campaign, the left-hander walked 99 batters, the most in Major League Baseball.

Although he may have cut down on walks this year, he still gave up free bases more than most with his 10.5 percent walk rate.

However, missing bats are Snell’s calling card, and the pitcher has done it with ease for many years now, with a 32.1% strikeout rate since the start of the 2018 season through ‘to this year, and has never seen this rate fall below 30% during this year. time.

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

Snell has proven he can be the ace of any contending team, with two Cy Young Awards under his belt, and could be joining another team as early as Monday.