How Blake Snell Can Pitch Back Into His Prime Self

When the San Diego Padres acquired Blake Snell in December, it seemed that he would be the number one man in the rotation. However, the hype surrounding the trade has not lived up and the Rays seem to be benefiting from trading away their star pitcher as of now. With a long season on a new team, Snell can find his rhythm, he just can't overthink on the mound.

In 2018, Snell went 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA and had 221 strikeouts in just 180.2 innings of work. By easily being proven a Cy Young winner that season, the Padres were hoping for that same performance in his first year in the brown and gold. Snell currently is 2-3 in the San Diego pinstripes with a ERA of 4.97 and has issued 35 walks in just 58.0 innings. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild has done a tremendous job for other Padre pitchers, but Snell has had a very inconsistent season comparing his great stats in Petco Park to on the road.

Snell and his numbers are worse than what they actually represent. Comparing this season to his award winning 2018 year, one pitch has bolstered his ERA. That pitch is the changeup. His fastball, slider and curveball have been doing its magic, but the changeup has been getting hit for hard contact which is a new factor that did not happen in the past. In 2021, Snell has thrown the changeup a significant amount. Batters are hitting .406. All of that average is coming against right-handed batters as not one has been thrown to a lefty. Snell's put away percentage is nowhere near his 2018 year with it just being at 4.3%. In 2018, it was 14.1%.

In addition to Snell's changeup, he has thrown it faster than before and has not shown that same result it has had for him since the beginning. Back when he had success with the pitch, Snell would throw the changeup around the 83-85 mph mark. It has great spin, fooled batters and just had overall great movement. In San Diego, it has not been the case. He has tried throwing the pitch harder maybe thinking he can get hitters chasing. By throwing it has hard as 88-89 mph, Snell has not had the same break and spin to that pitch which makes it so useless of a pitch at that point. If Snell gets back his signiture, slower changeup, he can throw more pitches and have more options to go deeper in games. Get him back that devastating pitch and have him throw the four: fastball, slider, changeup and curveball. However, the innings pitched has been a factor and could be a mental issue in Snell's mind as of now.

Snell needs to gain more confidence just on that pitch alone. He already brings the energy to the mound and is trying to eat more innings to pull stress from the bullpen. If Snell can gain more confidence and have less contact on that changeup from lefties, he will get better and throw more darts to the right-handed batters.