There was much for Marlins No. 3 prospect Robby Snelling to be proud of this season, one in which he reentered the conversation as one of the game’s top prospects (No. 51 per MLB Pipeline, to be exact).
The Marlins named Snelling, who turns 22 on Dec. 19, their Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He played a crucial role in Triple-A Jacksonville’s national championship run. And on Sunday, Snelling became the Rawlings Gold Glove Award recipient for Minor League pitchers.
Of all the accolades, stats and arsenal developments, however, one stood out most to Snelling when he saw it recently: a 90% caught stealing rate when he and batterymate Joe Mack, a 2024 Gold Glover, linked up.
“The personal stuff, the velo and the strikeouts and the swing-and-miss rate stuff, that's great, that's what you work toward selfishly, and that's what you're trying to get paid for,” Snelling said via Zoom on Thursday. “But being able to work with Joe and catch runners at a 90% clip, that's not seen a lot. And so I take a lot of pride in that, because it represents that I'm getting the ball to Joe quick enough for him to be able to transfer quick enough to throw out really, really, really good athletes running on the bases.”
Snelling, whom the Marlins acquired in the Tanner Scott/Bryan Hoeing trade ahead of the 2024 Deadline, was a reclamation project after his ERA rose (6.01) at Double-A and he dropped in the prospect rankings as a result. After a tantalizing 3.64 ERA across eight starts with his new organization, including a six-inning start at Triple-A Jacksonville to cap 2024, Snelling received an invitation to MLB camp, where he saw mixed results in two Spring Training games.
That didn’t carry over for Snelling, who took his game to new heights in his first full season with the Marlins’ organization. Once the initial disappointment of returning to Double-A Pensacola wore off, he led the system in starts (25), ERA (2.51) and strikeouts (166) between Double-A and Triple-A.
The southpaw was named Southern League Pitcher of the Week with the Blue Wahoos and August’s International League Pitcher of the Month with the Jumbo Shrimp.
Despite all of this success, Snelling still experienced a rough patch. During a three-start stretch from April 30 through May 13, he walked 13 batters and allowed 15 runs (13 earned). Both he and Double-A pitching coach Jerad Eickhoff went to the drawing board. It was important to remember another stretch like this would come up again, so they had to figure out how to respond more quickly next time. Snelling also threw more off the mound in between starts, a routine he kept through the remainder of the season.
From there, Snelling took off. Over his final 19 starts, he compiled a 2.06 ERA and a .600 OPS against. Snelling recorded three double-digit strikeout performances – all with Triple-A – and allowed no more than three earned runs in all but two of those 19 outings.
On Sept. 27, with Triple-A Jacksonville trying to secure its first title, the Jumbo Shrimp sent Snelling to the mound for the save opportunity and the chance to cap an unforgettable season in storybook fashion. Jacksonville was nursing a 6-3 lead with one run already across and two runners on with no outs.
Until then, Snelling had never appeared in relief during his professional career. Since it would’ve been Snelling's normal bullpen day, the Jumbo Shrimp went with the spur-of-the-moment decision.
Pitching for the first time in his home state of Nevada, Snelling averaged 98 mph on his fastball, pumping the best velocity of his career, but he walked the first batter. Following a run-scoring groundout, Bryan Lavastida ambushed Snelling's 97.7 mph four-seamer for a go-ahead three-run homer. Jacob Berry would bail Snelling out with a walk-off two-run shot in the bottom half of the frame.
“You don't want to give up the home run, and that's frustrating in itself, but I was happy with how I went out there and I filled up the zone and executed everything that we've been taught throughout the season,” Snelling said.
The learning continues this offseason, where it’ll once again end at Maven Baseball Lab in Atlanta before Snelling drives to Jupiter, Fla., for another big league camp. Snelling is inching ever closer to his Major League debut – perhaps with Mack ready for his offering behind home plate.
“I had a good season, but that was last year,” said Snelling, who admitted he was disappointed by not getting a callup in 2025. “Now we're moving on to next year, and I'm not going to think about what happened the year prior. We're turning the page, and we're going to try and do it again next year.”