One former San Diego Padres player is still looking for a new home.
Blake Snell, a former Padres sensation, is shockingly still available. The 2023 National League Cy Young Award winner has been hunting for a big contract this summer but hasn’t gotten it yet.
This year’s free agent market has surprised many. Things have proceeded excruciatingly slowly, but there are still some excellent options available. Snell is perhaps the greatest free agent available, with one team apparently showing “serious interest” in him. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports the team is the New York Yankees.
“The New York Yankees, who offered free-agent starter Blake Snell a five-year, $150 million contract before turning to Marcus Stroman last month, still have serious interest in him,” Nightengale said in a statement. “They are waiting to see if his asking price drops on a long-term deal or if he agrees to take a short-term contract that could pay him in excess of $35 million a year.”
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today
Snell led the National League last season with an excellent 2.25 ERA in 32 starts for San Diego. The southpaw has spent the last three seasons with the Padres, but he is expected to play somewhere in 2024.
New York has been in the news since the 2023 season finished, with the club making several important announcements. Early in the offseason, the Yankees made a blockbuster trade with San Diego to acquire superstar slugger Juan Soto. However, it appears that he will not be the only former Padres player to play for New York in 2024.
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Nick Burdi impresses Yankees with’really outstanding’ talent despite unique injury history.
TAMPA — It’s an exclusive club, and Nick Burdi didn’t particularly want to join.
Approximately 50 pitchers have had two Tommy John surgery.
More than 50 people have had surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome.
However, just two pitchers, Burdi and Shawn Hill, have had two Tommy John surgeries as well as thoracic outlet surgery and returned to throw in the major leagues.
“It was a lot,” said Hill, who has pitched for the Expos, Nationals, Padres, and Blue Jays and is in his seventh season as a Yankees pro scout.
Hill returned to the major leagues for one game in 2012 following his third surgery.
Burdi returned from the horrible trifecta for three games with the Cubs last year, but an unexpected appendectomy derailed the happy occasion.
But now he has a chance to come back, catching the Yankees’ attention early in spring training as a non-roster invitee competing for a bullpen place.
“It’s one of those things where I feel like I can still do this,” Burdi remarked on Sunday. “I believe that the tides will eventually reverse, and health will return. To be in this locker room, some of the guys I played with last year used to say, ‘We have a jersey, we got a chance.’ To me, if someone is going to give me a chance, I want to take advantage of it.”
The 31-year-old right-hander entered at camp with a lower arm slot, which he experimented with late last year before committing to in the winter.
It helps reduce some of the load on his frequently surgically repaired arm while maintaining the sharpness and shape of his pitches — in fact, he added, everything has improved.
Burdi threw live batting practice on Saturday and demonstrated a mid-to-upper 90s fastball, a sweeping slider, and a changeup from the lower slot.
“That was real,” said pitching coach Matt Blake. “That was impressive.”
“It’s kind of like a low-riding four-seam [fastball] with no arm-side run,” said Ben Rortvedt, who worked with Burdi in the Twins system and faced him in Saturday’s live session. “The off-speed is strong and crisp, too. “The stuff is really good.”
Burdi’s talent has never been questioned.
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Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies works out at first base prior to a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, April 20, 2023.
Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies is on board with his move to first base.
The Twins chose the former flame-throwing Louisville closer in the second round of the 2014 draft.
He was seen as an arm capable of quickly rising through the minors, but injuries hampered his progress.
The first Tommy John surgery occurred in May of 2017.
Later that year, he was selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Pirates, where he continued his recovery before making his MLB debut in September 2018.
“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve come across,” said Clay Holmes, who worked alongside Burdi in Pittsburgh.
Burdi joined the Pirates’ Opening Day roster in 2019, but in an April 22 game, he slumped to the ground in anguish and tears from a right biceps strain, necessitating surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) in June.
In September, he underwent additional operation to treat a forearm ailment.
After appearing in three games in 2020, Burdi underwent his second Tommy John surgery in October, followed by an ulnar nerve transposition in 2022.
“That was the hardest because that was the first one where I had a lot of setbacks,” said Burdi. “I had a hematoma and an infection in there.” Every time I threw, it ached. It [was] like, ‘Maybe I should start searching for a job or seeing if there’s something else that interests me, because I don’t know if this is going to happen.’
“But I remember my wife saying, ‘Just keep going.’ And we did, so we’re here.”
Hill claimed he had a tenacious mentality that kept him coming back from all of the surgeries.
He had a wild goose hunt (including the second Tommy John) before his TOS was diagnosed.
All of the surgeries took their toll over time, but he returned to the majors later that year for one last game with the Blue Jays.
“When I returned, I recognized the trainer…” “And he’s just shaking his head, like, ‘I don’t know how you’re still going,'” recalled Hill, whose velocity dropped the next year. “I said, ‘I don’t know anything else. Here’s what I do. It was both exciting and upsetting because, while I had made it back, I also realized I was a shell of who I could have been and was.”
Burdi hopes to craft a fresh ending for his story.
He wants to pitch for another six to eight years and sees the Yankees, who have a history of generating bullpen arms out of nowhere, as a strong fit for his next move.
“Especially being a dad, it’s one of those things where down the line, I want [my daughter and son] to be able to see I didn’t give up,” Burdi said in an interview. “I continued pushing myself. So if kids ever have a dream, they’ll go for it and be passionate about it.”
