San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants Starter Declining $30 Million Option ‘An Easy Decision’
All signs point to Blake Snell of the San Francisco Giants opting out of his player option.
If Snell decides to do so, he’ll hit the open market and likely have the best opportunity that he’s had in his career to get paid.
Not only could this be his best chance, but it’ll also potentially be his last opportunity to earn big money.
There are a lot of factors that play into how his free agency will play out.
On one hand, the Giants would be wise to offer him a new contract. They saw what he could do over much of the past few months, and despite his slow start, he’s still been one of the better arms in Major League Baseball.
However, with a team with as many holes as San Francisco, there’s also a strong argument that they shouldn’t pay him what he’s looking for and try to add multiple pieces for the price of one.
If he decides to opt out of his contract, he could potentially be losing out on $30 million.
An offseason ago, after winning his second Cy Young Award, the expectation was for him to be paid handsomely. Instead, his free agency didn’t go as planned, and he didn’t sign with the Giants until late in the offseason.
It’s uncertain if there are any worries about that potentially happening again from his perspective, but if the rumors become true, he isn’t too worried about being a free agent.
Because of that, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report believes him turning down his $30 million player option in 2025 is “an easy decision.”
“Snell struggled to a 9.51 ERA in six starts over the first three months of the season while navigating adductor and groin strains, but he has been lights out since getting healthy. In 13 starts since he returned from the injured list on July 9, he has a 1.33 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 105 strikeouts in 74.1 innings while limiting opposing hitters to a .125 average. That should make declining his $30 million player option for 2025 an easy decision.”
It’s not the craziest suggestion to say that he’d be wise to opt out of his current deal. However, it’s important to note that many of the same struggles he had in 2023, given teams were hesitant to pay him then, are also persistent in 2024.
That’s mostly his walk numbers. He walked 99 hitters a year ago and has walked 43 this campaign.
43 walks wouldn’t be many with a normal workload, but he’s thrown in just 98.0 innings.
If he feels confident in himself, he’s proven time and time again to prove any doubters wrong. If that’s the case, expect him to dominate wherever he goes.
San Francisco, CA
Sea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
San Francisco, CA
Giants Head Home to San Francisco After Shutout Loss
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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San Francisco, CA
Why do gray whales keep dying in San Francisco’s waters?
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
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