American pitcher Blake Ashton Snell, who was born on December 4, 1992, plays for the Major League Baseball (MLB) San Francisco Giants. He was formerly a player in Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays.
Snell was chosen by the Rays in the first round of the 2011 MLB draft, and he joined the Rays in 2016 for his Major League debut. In 2018, while he was an All-Star and led the American League (AL) in wins and earned run average (ERA), he won the Cy Young Award in the AL. Before the 2021 season, the Rays traded Snell to the Padres, and in 2023, he was awarded his second Cy Young Award.
Snell participated in the baseball team at Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Washington.[1][2] He worked out at a facility run by his father, a former minor league baseball player, when he was in high school. Snell had a 9–0 win–loss record, a 1.00 earned run average (ERA), and 128 strikeouts in more than 63 innings pitched during his senior year.
Snell was chosen by the Tampa Bay Rays in the first round of the Major League Baseball 2011 draft.[4] After signing with the Rays, he played for the Gulf Coast Rays in his professional debut, going 1-2 with a 3.08 ERA in 11 games (eight starts). He pitched to a 5-1 record and a 2.09 ERA in 11 starts with the Princeton Rays in 2012, then a 4-9 record and a 4.27 ERA in 23 games with the Bowling Green Hot Rods in 2013.
Snell joined Bowling Green at the beginning of 2014 and was traded to the Charlotte Stone Crabs in May. Pitching against the Daytona Cubs on August 2, he shortened a no-hitter due to rain.[5][6] In Stone Crabs history, it was the first no-hitter.