PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Left-handed pitching prospect Robby Snelling has been a non-roster invitee at Marlins big league camp in consecutive years, and that’s where the similarities end.
Though Snelling felt jitters as Miami’s Grapefruit League opener starter on Saturday afternoon, staring down a trio of All-Stars – Marcus Semien, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette – he tossed a perfect first inning in a 2-1 victory over the Mets at Clover Park.
“Being able to go out and have a scoreless inning to start the spring is huge, big confidence builder, and even happier to be in the zone like I was against a really good starting three,” said Snelling, who went to the bullpen afterwards for more volume because he was so efficient. “It's a good way to get your feet under you to start the year.”
The 22-year-old Snelling, who ranks as MLB Pipeline’s No. 39 overall prospect, finds himself in a different spot this spring than last. His comfort level is higher, especially coming off the season that he had re-establishing himself. There’s no longer a worry about belonging.
At the time of the July 2024 blockbuster trade that brought Snelling to the Marlins, his stuff had regressed and his ERA had ballooned to 6.01, resulting in a falling stock. Once he joined the Marlins’ system, however, the tweaks he had been working on began showing, with a combined 3.64 ERA in eight starts – the last of which came at the Triple-A level.
Knowing it would elevate the rest of his arsenal, Snelling increased his velocity and trusted his stuff in the zone to carry over the end-of-season 2024 momentum into ‘25. Snelling ranked fourth in the Minors in strikeouts (166 in 136 innings) and K/BB rate (23.2%) and fifth in ERA (2.51), as he was named the organization’s 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
“He's very talented, but it doesn't surprise me getting a chance to spend more time with him now and watching him that the success is not just all talent," manager Clayton McCullough said. "He's very driven and focused on the things that are going to separate him from being a really good Minor League pitcher into someone that can be a very good Major League pitcher."
Snelling got back on track with the help of new assistant pitching coach Rob Marcello, who served as the Padres’ director of pitching when San Diego selected Snelling 39th overall in the 2022 MLB Draft. They reunited last season for national champion Triple-A Jacksonville.
When Marcello met Snelling’s parents last year, Snelling’s dad made a point of telling Marcello how happy his son was to work with him again.
“He'd never been kicked in the face, and he'll tell you that he's always been the best player in football, best player in baseball,” Marcello said. “Me and him will joke around now and be like, ‘I sucked that year.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, you did.’ He's like, ‘Mentally, I couldn't slow anything down.’ …
“‘The amount of times you told me, ‘Hey, Robby, just breathe, and I just couldn't breathe.’ He's like, ‘I appreciate it man, looking back. I couldn't have done it,’ and that's why I think it goes back to the human and knowing him from the Draft and all the Draft work the Padres do, which they're known to be good in the Draft. It's like drafting this guy because of ‘X, Y and Z.’”
With a 40-man roster already consisting of starting-pitching options Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer, Braxton Garrett, Chris Paddack, Janson Junk, Adam Mazur, Ryan Gusto (scoreless second inning) and Bradley Blalock, all of whom have pitched in the big leagues, Snelling is unlikely to break camp with the Opening Day roster.
Don’t tell that to Snelling. An impressive spring or a strong beginning to his Triple-A season – if that’s where he begins the 2026 season – will not go unnoticed. The countdown is on until Snelling faces the top of the Mets’ order on a regular basis.
“If you don't go into the spring with that mindset, I don't want to say you don't belong there, but you’ve got to have a little competitive fire in you,” Snelling said. “These are my teammates, but also, you want to go out there and be selfish and put numbers up on the board and have your metrics reflect the type of pitcher you are and prove that you deserve to be up there.
“I'm definitely going into spring with that kind of mindset. I think that today was a good example of what I can do [with a] very, very small sample size, like I said, and you obviously have to continue to repeat that. But I think that was a very good showing of what's possible.”