Top prospects and roomies White, Snelling eyeing MLB debuts

JUPITER, Fla. -- One is a quiet kid from Massachusetts with a skater boy aesthetic. The other is a sociable outdoorsman from Nevada with cowboy boots.

Together, Marlins farmhands and roommates Thomas White and Robby Snelling-- ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 17 and No. 39 prospects, respectively -- make up the most formidable lefty prospect pitching duo in baseball.

“It's definitely unique,” Snelling said. “I don't know if there's a lot of other organizations that have guys that I can strongly say and firmly believe that have the relationship that him and I have, but also that are as talented. I think that it's going to be a lot of fun coming up through the organization with him, and hopefully pitching with him on my team, because I don't want to watch him throw against my team that I'm on. Hopefully [I'll be] pitching with him for a really long time.”

Though White, 21, and Snelling, 22, had spoken before at Minor League camp, their friendship didn’t blossom until White joined Snelling in Double-A Pensacola last June. And not without a lesson in unwritten rules.

When White arrived at the clubhouse in his agency's shorts, Snelling told the newcomer to wear jeans or slacks to the ballpark. The rest is history.

Prior to Snelling’s promotion to Triple-A Jacksonville a month later, the pair played catch and roomed together. White and Snelling shared what they were working on: a sweeper and arm-side misses for White and better movement and spin for Snelling.

“I do a lot of overanalyzing, so it's good to have another lefty, similar side, similar stuff,” White said. “We can just bounce ideas off of each other.”

White and Snelling reunited again in early September in Jacksonville, helping the Jumbo Shrimp capture the national championship. New Marlins assistant pitching coach Rob Marcello had a front-row seat to their hard work as Jacksonville’s pitching coach.

Marcello, who overlapped in the Padres' organization with Snelling, played a pivotal role in the 6-foot-3 southpaw’s resurgence. Snelling used a nine-pocket net on a daily basis to improve his accuracy, something White has picked up this spring to hop on what he calls the “Robby Snelling Walk Rate Percentage Train.”

The proof is in the pudding, as Snelling earned the organization’s 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He lowered his walk rate from 8.9% across three teams in 2024 to 6.9% with Triple-A in ‘25. White, who dealt with back trouble over his final six starts, saw his jump from 9.2% to 13.6% from ‘24-25. It often got masked by his 38.6% strikeout rate, which ranked third among Minor Leaguers (min. 89 2/3 innings).

“When it comes to those two, it's the want to get better and truly care about themselves and look in the mirror and realize, ‘All right, I'm good, but I'm not good enough to play as long as I say I want to play for,’” Marcello said. “… Two really good human beings to start. Again, people that want to get better care about others. All the other stuff is there.”

The grind continued during the cold winter months, as the 6-foot-5 White added upper-body strength, improved his stride length by a foot and got his extension to 7 feet, 1 inch while training near Boston with guys like Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick. Snelling left for Atlanta about six weeks ago, utilizing baseball technology not available in his hometown of Reno and working out with pros like teammate Graham Pauley.

Around this time, White got a call from director of player development Rachel Balkovec with his first invitation to big league camp. Snelling, who also is a non-roster invitee, asked White if he wanted to rent an Airbnb with the “Pad Squad” of him, Pauley, Nathan Martorella and Adam Mazur as well as Johnny Olmstead and Dale Stanavich this spring.

“Robby's going to get annoyed with me at some point because we're living together now, too,” White said. “I try to pick his brain. He's done pretty much everything that I've done a year ahead of me, so I feel like I'm going to go through exactly what he's going to, so it’s like a cheat sheet. I think it's amazing to have somebody like him, and he's such a good dude that he doesn't mind.”

Added Snelling: “I really don't put myself in a mentor role. Him and I, I see at the same level. I think he's ahead of what I was last year, and that's what makes me admire him so much, the amount of work that he puts in. You get to watch him day in, day out, and seeing the work that he not only puts in on the field, but also in the weight room, and how clean he eats at the house, just overall a good guy to be around.

“It's not like I'm putting myself on a pedestal or anything, and it's not going to be one-sided conversations of me giving him advice. I'm going to pick his brain, too, because he does a lot of things that I'm just not able to do. If he can help me get to the level of throwing 100 [mph] like he does, that'd be awesome, and vice versa. I hope that I can do the same for some things that he sees himself getting better at as well.”

So far this spring, Snelling started the Marlins’ Grapefruit League opener on Saturday, retiring a trio of All-Stars in order. White will make his Grapefruit League debut on Thursday in Dunedin against the Blue Jays. With a host of 40-man roster options trying to make the Opening Day pitching staff, the likelihood of them breaking camp with the team is slim.

But MLB Pipeline does project both to debut sometime this season, and that appears to be the sentiment within the Marlins' organization. If that’s the case, would they room together in Miami?

“That's kind of dictating who gets called up when,” Snelling said. “You get up there and it's like, ‘Should I get a two-bedroom apartment because I want Thomas to come up here? Or should I live with somebody else or get a one-bedroom?’"

“I hope we both get big league time,” White said. “That would be a good way to start.”