Blake Snell, On A Live Stream, Is Not Happy About The Tommy Pham Trade

I feel bad for Blake Snell here because he’s obviously gonna catch heat for this, but that was fucking hilarious. Just a pure, genuine reaction to the Rays trading Tommy Pham to the Padres for Hunter Renfroe and a slapdick prospect by the name of Xavier Edwards.

Snell shouldn’t have to apologize for this, by the way. Baseball fans WANT to see genuine reactions like this. The guy’s pissed that he’s not only losing a great teammate, but a pretty damn good player in Pham who hit .273, had a .369 on-base percentage, an .818 OPS, 21 homers, 33 doubles, and 3.3 fWAR. That’s a guy I’d like to keep around.

Instead, the Rays are getting back Renfroe, who hit .216 with a .289 on-base, .778 OPS, 33 homers, 19 doubles and 1.9 fWAR. Of course, since we’re talking about the Rays, this is about money. Pham is projected to get $8 million in his second year of arbitration, while Renfroe is projected to get $3.5 million in his first year of arbitration.

The slapdick prospect, which I’m sure will become his nickname this spring training, split last season between Single-A and High-A. Between the two levels, the 20-year-old infielder hit .322 with a .771 OPS. He was actually a first-round draft pick of the Padres in 2018, and ranked as San Diego’s number five prospect per MLB.com. Not bad for a slapdick.