What To Expect: Blake Snell

Following a breakout 2015 season that saw him be named Minor League Player of the Year, Blake Snell is coming to the majors.

The Rays called up the 23-year-old lefthander from Triple-A Durham and say he will start Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

Snell was drafted 52nd overall in 2011 out of a Seattle-area high school and had mixed success his first four pro seasons before putting together one of the most dominant minor league seasons for a pitcher. In 2015 across three levels, Snell went 15-4 and led all minor league starters with a 1.41 ERA, falling short of Justin Verlander’s 1.28 in 2005. Snell was second in opponents average at .182 and fourth with 10.9 strikeouts per game.

Snell didn’t allow a run in his first 21 innings with high Class A Charlotte, 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 allowed a run.

BA’s Josh Norris was on hand to see Snell on Opening Day and spoke with Durham manager Jared Sandberg.

“There’s a lot of hype,” Sandberg told Norris, “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.”

SCOUTING REPORT

In 2015, Snell’s velocity ticked up, and he sat at 93-94 mph with the ability to reach as high as 97. His fastball maintained its late sinking action, too, making it a devastating pitch when he is able to spot it down in the zone. Snell’s changeup showed great improvement as well, going from a potential above-average pitch into one that missed bats. He uses that late-fading change as a weapon against righthanded hitters. The slider shows sharp, downward break, away from lefthanded hitters. He also throws a 12-to-6 curveball, spotting that more to give batters a different look. The Rays considered bringing Snell to the majors in September, but he’d already thrown 134 innings, more than he had in his career.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Snell has the talent, poise and makeup to be a No. 2 starter at his best. His command is easily the biggest red flag. Before his superb 2015, Snell walked 4.4 batters per nine innings in 2014 and 6.6 per nine in 2013. He cut his walk rate to 3.6 batters per nine in 2015 and struck out more than four batters per walk. But this season he’s walked seven in just 14 innings, although he has struck out 21.

If Snell can corral some of the command issues that dogged him prior to 2015, he could be in the bigs for good. But Tampa Bay has solid pitching depth, and Alex Cobb could return by mid-July. A return trip to the minors, if just for a brief time, could be in the offing for Snell, depending on results.

“Can’t have dreamed of a better way,” Snell told BA correspondent Marc Topkin via text. “It’s really such an amazing time for me. And I’m really fortunate to be in this situation.”