Snell Brings Heat On Rainy Opening Night

DURHAM, N.C.—Temperatures in Durham were in the 40s when top Rays prospect Blake Snell took the mound on Opening Night. The game had already been delayed 20 minutes after a pop-up shower during pre-game introductions. Even worse, the wind had begun to whip and drop the temperatures even further.

What did Snell do? He turned up the heat.

The lefthander spun five innings of two-run ball against Charlotte on Thursday, limiting the Knights to five hits and a walk while striking out five. He did most of his work with a fastball that featured enough explosive late life to make the pitch seem even faster than the 93-95 mph he consistently registered. He combined the fastball with a mid-80s changeup, a slider and a 12-to-6 curveball, but the fastball was his primary weapon.

“I really wanted to throw the fastball up, that was kind of my goal,” Snell said. “I felt like I had a lot of life on it. I was backspinning it really well. It was going to be hard for them to hit a high fastball in the mid-90s, I felt. I felt like I had the best chance to blow it by them. A lot of the swings I was seeing were home run swings, and I don’t think they’re going to catch up to a mid-90s fastball up and in and if they do I feel like they were going to foul it off. I feel like I get out pretty far (with his arm extension) so I feel like trying to pull the ball on me is going to be really tough, especially when I’m throwing it as hard as I can.”

One particular sequence epitomized Snell’s approach. Against Tim Anderson, the Charlotte shortstop and the White Sox’s No. 1 prospect, Snell started with a changeup at 84 mph about thigh high. Strike one. He followed with a 93 mph fastball at the letters. Strike two. The next pitch was 94 at Anderson’s neck and got a second straight swing. Strike three.

A year ago at this time, Snell was as low profile as a former first-rounder can be. He ranked No. 9 in the Rays’ system, and garnered just two votes for the 2015 Top 100 prospects list. He opened the season with high Class A Charlotte and began a streak that would fascinate prospect-watchers nationwide. He didn’t allow a run in his first 21 innings with the Stone Crabs, then got bumped to Double-A Montgomery. There, he strung together 19 more shutout innings.

It wasn’t until May 23 against Tennessee that Snell, after posting 49 straight scoreless innings dating back to 2014, finally let up a run. Smokies catcher Willson Contreras did the honors, plating a run with a single to right field. Snell allowed just 10 runs in the season’s first three months.

That got him plenty of press, as well as a spot on the U.S. roster for the Futures Game at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. He finished with the best ERA in the minors at 1.41, which fell short of Justin Verlander‘s mark of 1.28 from 2005. He of course also took home a bevy of awards, including Baseball America’s Player of the Year honor.

“There’s a lot of hype,” Durham manager Jared Sandberg said, “but it’s about him going out and pitching and not trying to worry about any of the other stuff that goes on (like) when he’s going to get called up, when he’s going to make his major league debut, if he goes up is he coming back down, all those things are for us to worry about. He just needs to go out and pitch and limit the stuff that he reads, just go pitch and get his work in.”

He ranked No. 12 on this year’s Top 100 Prospects list, and was the fourth-highest pitcher on the list behind only Julio Urias, Lucas Giolito and Alex Reyes. On top of all that, he got his first taste of big league spring training this year.

The Rays have produced plenty of pitching in recent years: Alex Cobb, Wade Davis and David Price were draft picks, and Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi were developed in part by the Rays as well. Then there’s Matt Moore, a lefty fireballer who has been handled very similarly to Snell, and made his debut in 2011 with the kind of fanfare that Snell can expect to receive once he gets the call.

Moore had Tommy John surgery in 2014 and battled command issues after his return. He had enough trouble, in fact, that he was demoted to Triple-A last year at the end of the season. It certainly wasn’t the scenario Moore wanted, but it might have helped Snell soak in a little bit of extra wisdom before it’s his turn to shine.

“They’ve had similar paths through the minor leagues. The organization was very, very patient with Matt Moore and there was a lot of hype with him as well,” Sandberg said. “Having him in the clubhouse working together on their throwing programs, watching each other’s bullpens, I think it was special because Matt Moore took him under his wing.

“(Durham pitching coach) Kyle Snyder took him under his wing and sat Matt Moore down and said, ‘You can really help this kid out. He’s lefthanded, throws hard and is knocking on the door.’ The organization has had patience with him going up the ladder throughout the minor leagues, and Matt really helped him out a lot. There were some great conversations.”

Snell did what he could to make the most of the unexpected opportunity to learn from a major leaguer who had recently been on the same path through the minor leagues.

“Being able to hang out with him, be around him, he’s just such a good dude,” he said. “A lot of the things we would talk about were just really cool things. I felt like I could ask him anything and he was going to answer honestly. I felt like it was really cool to have him here and see what he does. I was really excited to have him here but I’m happy he’s in the big leagues now.”

Snell, a native of Seattle, said he didn’t mind Thursday night’s rain. If he keeps pitching like he did against Charlotte, he might have to wait long to get to Tampa Bay and avoid it altogether.