Giants’ failure to add Blake Snell would be Dodgers rival’s biggest blunder yet

Is there a curse on the San Francisco Giants' pitching staff? With the rate at which their starters are falling like dominoes, it seems like there might be. Tristan Beck is the latest Giant to fall; he'll undergo surgery to treat an aneurysm in his arm, joining Alex Cobb, who had a labrum surgery in October, on the IL. It might also be half-curse, half-self-inflicted harm, though, as they traded for Robbie Ray knowing that he'd be out for the year after Tommy John.

Whatever the case, Giants pitching is in bad shape, which must be music to the Dodgers' ears. At the moment, they only have four starters, and one of them (Jordan Hicks) hasn't started a game since 2022.

It's easy to pick on the Giants for any number of reasons, and this offseason it's been all about how they can't close deals and attract free agents to their organization (congrats on Matt Chapman's market cratering, by the way). They've been circling Blake Snell for some time and, as funny as it would be, this wouldn't be the time for them to miss.

At this point, the alternative to Snell would be bringing up a Triple-A pitcher or non-roster invitee to try to hold down the fort at the very back of the rotation.

SF Giants can't afford to whiff on Blake Snell, but it'd be good for the Dodgers if they did

If the Giants are serious about Snell, they'll need to beat out direct competition from the Yankees, who have been trying to get him and agent Scott Boras to stop gunning for a long, high-priced deal with little progress. Of course, the Dodgers shouldn't and likely don't want him in their division for another year, especially after a 2023 when he kept Dodgers hitters to a collective .128 batting average against him, and they especially don't want him dealing for yet another hated division rival. We're not rooting for the Giants, necessarily, but it would be profoundly sad if they swung and missed at yet another huge free agent.

Getting Snell would be the only thing that would make the Giants even a little intimidating to the Dodgers, who are in tip-top shape at the moment. As things stand, the Giants, who went 6-7 against the Dodgers last year, are liable to do even worse against them in 2024. That'd be a lot of fun to watch, sure, but sometimes you've gotta throw the little guy a bone.