Snell, who endured an inconsistent spring during which he struggled with his control, is looking forward to a clean slate beginning with Thursday's start against the Blue Jays, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times reports. "I feel like I made a lot of strides," Snell said, "and now I'm ready to see if I really did."
The promising southpaw notched two spring victories but also generated a 5.87 ERA, .298 BAA, 1.70 WHIP and a 17:11 K:BB over 23 innings. Snell was rather bluntly critiqued by manager Kevin Cash and pitching coach Jim Hickey after his first five appearances, with both noting that he needed to utilize his fastball more and get deeper into games. Snell rebounded by pitching at least four innings in his final three starts, although he gave up four earned runs apiece in two of those outings. However, his fastball did get back up into the mid-90s range he'd flashed in his final outing of 2016, setting up an anticipated season debut Thursday against a tough Blue Jays lineup. "Blake is still a very young pitcher," Cash said. "It's tough to really gauge what spring training is doing. We were happy to see his (velocity) pick back up where it finished off last year."