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Fennelly: Rays' Blake Snell kept a pledge, can he fulfill his promise?

 

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Blake Snell (4) in the bullpen during the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Fla. on Saturday, March 4, 2017.
Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Blake Snell (4) in the bullpen during the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Fla. on Saturday, March 4, 2017.
Published March 25, 2017

PORT CHARLOTTE — He was in eighth grade and his grandmother was dying. Arlene Snell told her grandson that she believed he could be a pitcher in the major leagues.

"And I told her I would get there," Blake Snell said.

He made a pledge.

And he kept it.

Last season, he made his major-league debut — at Yankee Stadium. Big crowd. Five innings, two hits, one run. Quite the arrival. Snell finished his rookie season with a 6-8 record, a 3.54 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 89 innings.

Is this the next great left-handed arm on the Rays pitching assembly line?

That's what 2017 is about.

So far, not so good.

The 24-year-old Snell, expected to be a big part of the rotation, has been disappointing in five spring appearances. He is expected to make his longest start today in Port Charlotte.

"This is a big outing for him," Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey said.

There is work to do, and Snell needs to do it. I don't want to say the Rays are growing impatient, but, well, they are.

"He's got to turn it on," manager Kevin Cash said Thursday. "He's got to flip the switch a little bit. I talked to Blake today. He has tinkered with this, tinkered with that. He knows it's time to stop tinkering and let's get some outs."

"I'm aware of it, for sure," Snell said. "I've struggled. At the same time, I'm happy about it. It's only teaching me more, telling me what I have to work on. The season is less than two weeks away. It's time to get it going. There are no excuses. But I know what I need to get there. I'm aware of it. I'm happy I'm aware of it so I can work on it. I'd be a little more antsy going into the season if I wasn't."

That makes his bosses a little antsy.

"If he knows what's wrong, that's tremendous," Hickey said. "Now go out and remedy it."

And remember the Rays will have plenty of pitchers in Triple-A Durham. That's not a threat. It's a fact.

So is Snell's upside.

"He has potential to be a No. 1 starter," Rays pitcher Alex Cobb said. "His stuff is off the chart. He's going to have to get the doses of reality, the struggles that come. He had some last year. He's having some this spring. It happens to everybody."

Snell's struggles as a rookie included a boatload of bases on balls. He led American League rookies by averaging nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings, but his 5.16 walks per nine were the most in the majors.

His 19.5 pitches per inning were the most in the majors, too.

"What I would like to see out of him is command of the fastball," Hickey said. "That's the key for everybody, but for him especially. If he can just get the fastball into the zone, get hitters into swing mode, get umpires into strike mode, his secondary pitches are really that good.

"His changeup is outstanding. His slider is a big-time swing-and-miss pitch, and his curveball is good. But it all plays off of the fastball. It's the same conversation we could have had with a David Price or a Matt Moore back then, but it's time for him to go.

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"This guy is capable of being one of the best if not the best of the bunch. If you look at David Price at this time of his career, Blake probably has more of an arsenal. Not probably. He does. He's got a legitimate four-pitch thing, a repertoire."

This is the guy the Rays took with a supplemental pick, 52nd overall, in the June 2011 draft. This is the guy who was named Baseball America's minor-league player of the year in 2015, which he began with a 46-inning scoreless streak and finished with him going 15-4 with a 1.41 ERA. That's how top baseball prospects are born.

That's how you end up in the same sentence with a Price or a Moore.

"I hear it. I believe it's very attainable," Snell said. "There's a lot of work that's going to have to go into being that guy."

It's not prospect time.

It's go time.

Contact Martin Fennelly at mfennelly@tampabay.com or (813) 731-8029. Follow @mjfennelly.