SAN FRANCISCO — Blake Snell's season with the Giants was full of unexpected ups and downs, but the end result wasn't surprising.

Snell officially opted out of the second year of his contract on Friday, returning to free agency seven months after the Giants showed up and signed him to a deal they believed would catapult them back into the postseason. The left-hander expects to find a much better market this time around and plans to sign before the start of spring training after seeing the damage caused by his long absence last winter.

Waiting for Snell's price to drop last offseason, the Giants signed him to a two-year, $62 million contract in March, adding the reigning Cy Young Award winner to a rotation that already featured the runner-up Cy Young was represented. They were hoping that Snell and Logan Webb would give them a dominant one-two, and Snell actually had strong numbers on paper, but he got there in a strange way.

Snell finished the game with a 3.12 ERA and a 2.43 FIP, but his first half was a disaster and contributed to the team being in a bad position at the trade deadline when Farhan Zaidi decided to move on as his best trade chip to keep and try. The Giants added Snell to their opening day roster in hopes of starting him on their first road trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he didn't make his debut until the 11th game of the season.

The rust of a missed spring was evident early on, as Snell posted a 9.51 ERA in his first six starts and failed to complete five innings in any of them. Snell hit the IL twice with an adductor strain, but the second stint allowed him semi-spring training at Triple-A, and upon his return he was the most dominant pitcher in baseball.

Snell had a 1.23 ERA with a 1.77 FIP and 114 strikeouts in 80 1/3 innings in his last 14 starts. On August 2nd, he failed to score against the Cincinnati Reds.

The no-hitter was one of four starts in a month in which Snell topped the 100-pitch mark, and he made it clear that he wanted to prove to potential buyers that he was capable of going deep into games. At the end of the season, Snell promised that the team that signs him this offseason will get a different version, a pitcher capable of being more of a workhorse. Since 2018, he has only thrown more than 130 innings once.

“All I want to do is pitch,” he said in late September. “It sucks too just because I have to be smart and that's exactly where I'm at right now, but once I sign the contract it's just pitch, pitch, pitch. I love doing this. That's all I really care about.”

The Giants must now decide how much confidence they have in Snell's ability to pitch innings well into his 30s. He turns 32 this winter and is looking for a long-term contract that wasn't available last offseason. After deciding not to play his final outing, the Washington native Snell said he was enjoying San Francisco and hoped the teams talked in the offseason.

“I love it here. I think we can be really, really good,” he said. “I see a lot of potential and enjoy being here. We'll see what happens. It sucks, I don't like having to choose and so on. I just want to be in a place that wants me and loves me and I'm going to invest in myself to help them win. I hope we'll see.

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