The 2018 season marked Blake Snell’s coming out party. In a season where he dominated the league en route to his first Cy Young award, Snell established himself as one of the most exciting and dominant pitchers in the game. The following offseason, the Rays acknowledged his success and signed him to a five-year, fifty-million-dollar extension. Alongside Charlie Morton, who the Rays signed to a thirty-million-dollar deal earlier that offseason, Blake Snell was set to lead the Rays to October baseball for the first time since 2013, while also chasing his second consecutive Cy Young award.
The Rays did make the postseason, but Snell was unable to defend his Cy Young title due to a rash of injuries that pestered him throughout the year.