Snell featured a revamped slider during his first live batting practice Thursday, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports. "He looked awesome; he looked really good," said Rays manager Kevin Cash. "I think he put some weight in his lower half to get stronger and it looked pretty easy today."
The left-hander is fully healthy and looking like it, impressing during the 30 pitches he threw to Ji-Man Choi, Randy Arozarena and Willy Adames. Snell used all four of his pitches Thursday, but eight of his offerings were sliders. Notably, Snell threw the pitch just 6.7 percent of the time in 2019; however, the 27-year-old is focusing on refining the slider this spring after he generated an impressive .208 xBA when deploying it last season, and he plans to utilize it as a way of making his changeup and fastball more effective in the coming campaign.