Snell loses cool reacting to Pham trade on Twitch
Tampa Bay Rays left-hander and former Cy Young winner Blake Snell had an immediate and strong reaction after learning about his team’s trade of outfielder Tommy Pham to the San Diego Padres.
“We gave Pham up for [Hunter] Renfroe and a damn slapd— prospect?” Snell said during a Twitch stream early Friday morning in a moment that was captured and shared on social media. Snell later apologized on the stream and told the Tampa Bay Times he was just frustrated over losing Pham, who hit .273 with 21 home runs and 68 RBIs in 2019.
Second baseman Xavier Edwards was the prospect to whom Snell referred. Edwards, outfielder Renfroe and a player to be named later are headed to Tampa Bay from the Padres in exchange for Pham and two-way prospect Jake Cronenworth, the Padres announced Friday evening. News of the deal first broke early Friday morning.
Edwards is an athletic middle infielder with excellent bat-to-ball skills who is a favorite among evaluators. In July, ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him as the Padres’ No. 5 prospect and the No. 46 prospect in all of baseball.
“I apologized on [Twitch] just saying I’m sorry I’m just upset we’re losing a guy like Tommy who helped our team in so many ways!” Snell said in a text to the Tampa Bay Times. “Didn’t mean any disrespect to Edwards who I didn’t know who he was until after I said that. I was just sad to lose Tommy. … Pretty much we could’ve got [Nationals rookie Juan] Soto, I was just sad to lose Tommy. It’s tough losing someone you respect so much and enjoy being around.”
Edwards told the Tampa Bay Times that Snell reached out to him to clear things up.
“He actually reached out to me earlier today and explained that he was a good friend of Pham’s and he kind of just reacted in that moment and said what he said, but that he didn’t mean any disrespect or any hard feelings,” Edwards said. “I’ve got to take him at his word, and just looking forward to getting after it.”
Snell’s Twitch account has nearly 300 videos and more than 9,400 followers.