If baseball had a real free market for player salaries then Blake Snell, coming off his Cy Young Award winning 2019, would be looking at a huge raise.
Instead, Snell received a salary increase of $15,500 to $573,700 next season, $10,000 of which was mandatory for all players. The critical stories are continuing to come because there’s no way for a 2.8% raise to look good when you’ve won your profession’s highest honor, particularly when most of that small increase was mandatory.
Throughout this, Snell has remained professional. He released an official statement through his agents, and is keeping the commentary out of the clubhouse.