Poor injury luck could lead to NL team stealing Blake Snell from Yankees

Were you getting excited about the Yankees' Blake Snell rumors growing a little louder? It might be time to get less excited, considering one of the other teams supposedly in Snell's orbit now has a more pressing rotation need.

As of this moment in time, Scott Boras' miscalculated market for Snell's services appears to include a lingering Yankees offer, as well as a hope and dream that the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim could also get involved. Arte Moreno's Angels are apparently reticent to greatly increase their budget in this winter's flawed market, as much as Mike Trout would like them to. That fit makes more sense on the back pages than on the field.

But those Giants? Ehhh, we could see it. Matt Chapman is the current name on everybody's lips, but after striking out on Aaron Judge and slamming "undo" on Carlos Correa's contract, the Giants need a non-Jung-hoo Lee win in Farhan Zaidi's embattled tenure. Zaidi seems unlikely to expand the team's budget too far unless, say, a sudden need were to arise that would make them less competitive at their current payroll level.

Well, call the San Francisco Giants' rotation a Stephen King Curse, because their depth just got "thinnnnerrrrr."

Yankees' Blake Snell chances could be harmed by San Francisco Giants injury

So far, so clean for Keaton Winn, the Giants' projected No. 4, but San Francisco can't exactly afford to absorb any kind of injury to their rotation depth.

At the moment, NL Cy Young candidate Logan Webb fronts the unit, but high-ceiling rookie Kyle Harrison, veteran Alex Cobb, and in-the-process-of-converting reliever Jordan Hicks are the only non-Winns behind him. While Harrison's ceiling is similar to Snell's, the youngster could definitely use a mentor with similarly electric stuff -- at the right price.

And if Snell's not at the right price now, when will he ever be?

The Yankees still have a high variance rotation, and any lingering Nestor Cortes Jr. uncertainty could serve the same purpose for Boras' bargaining as Winn's injury. Frankly, though, it shouldn't be Winn's elbow soreness that convinces the Giants to spend. It should be Winn occupying a rotation spot in the first place.