It’s… not what you want.
Well, this is… suboptimal. Alex Pavlovic reports that the San Francisco Giants have placed Blake Snell on the IL (retroactive to yesterday) with a “left adductor strain.” The team has invested a lot of money for a big performance in a short period of time from the reigning NL Cy Young, and so far, it hasn’t worked out. And yet, it’s going about as well as could be expected.
This is the exact same injury that landed Snell on the IL in April 2022 and was a follow-up to the exact same injury that sent him to the IL in September 2021. Kevin Acee wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2022:
The adductor injury, which involves muscles on the inside of the thigh near the groin, is what caused the Padres to shut down Snell in mid-September.
[…]
“I can walk, which is way better than last time,” said Snell, who continued treatment on the groin area throughout the offseason. “Last time, walking hurt. This time I don’t feel it. So, I think I should be fine.”
Snell, who finished last season on a monthlong tear before the adductor injury, said his arm feels as good as it ever has at this point in a year. An elbow scare that prompted him to get an MRI and shut down his throwing program in February slowed his progression leading into camp, and he made just two spring training start. But his pitches won rave reviews.
Obviously, it hasn’t gone well for Snell in his three starts so far: an 11.57 ERA (4.62 FIP) in just 11.2 innings, but a 12-5 K-BB and just 2 home runs allowed and fastball velocity in line with his career norms. His breaking stuff hadn’t yet gotten to their spin averages from last year, but we’d seen some flashes of the great curveball and effective slider.
Could this all be an elaborate ruse for everyone to save face and get Snell some proper rehab/training time? I think anything’s possible, and if you asked Ross Stripling or AJ Pollock this question, I’m sure you’d get an answer that suggested the team wasn’t shy about playing games with the IL.
Scott Boras’s decision to play chicken with his client’s career to squeeze out $3-$4 million extra dollars to set some AAV records looks dumber and dumber as the days drag on. Why Snell didn’t seem to want to do the Jordan Montgomery thing of getting in some extended Spring Training time before appearing in the majors is baffling, too, but in either case we have to wonder what the Giants were thinking here, because at the end of the day, this has turned out exactly as expected.
Does that mean the situation will ultimately play out as the team expects and Snell will only get stronger as the season goes on and be in peak condition with limited innings on his arm as the team makes the turn from around .500 into a team making a legitimate playoff push? Guess we’ll find out together.
A bit more on adductor strains, since we’re now fans of a team that works with the Blake Snell Corp.: The National Library of Medicine website reports,
Adductor strain or injury to the adductor muscle group is a common cause of medial leg and groin pain, especially among athletes. The adductor complex includes the three adductor muscles (longus, magnus, and brevis) of which the adductor longus is most commonly injured. All three muscles primarily provide adduction of the thigh.
[Adduction is the act of drawing (something, such as a limb) toward or past the median axis of the body… like how the legs move during a pitcher’s delivery.]
Most adductor strains are managed conservatively. Initial management will include relative rest from sports, ice, compression, analgesia, and physical therapy. Analgesia typically includes acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. The rehabilitation program should include stretching the range of motion and strengthening of the affected leg and core accompanied by a gradual return to sport. Acute injuries may return as quickly as 4 to 8 weeks while chronic strains may take many months to achieve desired results.
In addition, other treatment modalities may be available for refractory cases. This includes corticosteroid injection into the adductor complex and needle tenotomy, both of which are at the discretion of the consulting clinician and typically performed under ultrasound guidance.
Snell missed about a month when this happened in 2022 and it ended his season in 2021, leading into that discussion of his shoulder pain during his offseason training. It’s not an insignificant injury and could have several knock-on effects. When you add that to the very risky program he’s decided to have this season — no formal prep, immediate game adrenaline, the Giants’ lineup — the risk of something worse later on increases.
Of course, it’s always risky to sign a pitcher to any sort of significant deal. Now we’re going to see just how much stress you can put on that pitcher and still get results.
Landen Roupp, who was optioned back to Triple-A yesterday to make room for the newly acquired Mitch White, will take Snell’s spot on the roster using the IL loophole (an optioned player usually cannot be recalled for 10 days, but there’s an exception when they are recalled to replace a player placed on the injured list).