Joining Marlins changed No. 8 prospect Snelling's game

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Marlins No. 8 prospect Robby Snelling is a physical presence on the mound.

At 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, it wouldn’t be hard to mistake the 21-year-old left-hander for a linebacker. When the Padres selected Snelling 39th overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, he decided to begin his professional baseball career rather than pursue collegiate baseball and football.

Yet that football mentality has transferred over into Snelling’s aggressiveness while attacking batters.

“First word that comes to mind is just ‘competitor,’” director of Minor League operations Hector Crespo said. “I think there's a presence to him when he's on the mound, and his work ethic, but just the compete mode since he's joined us. I think it's been cool to see him walk in -- and you never know how guys are going to react to getting traded or joining an organization -- but he hit the ground running as soon as he got to us, had an open mind and willingness to learn, and then obviously the natural talent kind of takes shape.”

Snelling, whom the Marlins acquired from San Diego in the Tanner Scott/Bryan Hoeing deal ahead of last year’s Trade Deadline, was in the midst of a disappointing season (6.01 ERA in 16 starts with Double-A San Antonio). His mechanics were out of whack, and his velocity had dropped to 91-93 mph.

A self-aware Snelling knew he was struggling and was already making changes at the time of the trade. He posted a 3.64 ERA across eight starts with his new organization, finishing the season with a promising six-inning start at Triple-A Jacksonville. Not only did Snelling see an uptick in velocity but he also regained effectiveness with his slurve.

“I was happy with it, because it showed that the Marlins got a guy that knows what was going wrong and knows how to fix it, and I was dedicated to fixing it,” Snelling said. “I was good. I also had a great support staff that was around me. They trusted me and knew that I knew what was wrong, and they were going to allow me to do what I needed to do to fix it.”

Miami invited him to MLB camp, where Snelling was eager to make a good first impression. He had spent the offseason ensuring his mechanics were clean and adding a gyro slider to his arsenal.

Snelling tossed a perfect inning against the Mets in his Grapefruit League debut, then struggled with his command five days later in his second and final outing. He allowed two runs on four walks and two hits, recording just two outs and striking out one batter on 42 pitches.

When the Marlins reassigned him to Minor League camp, they conveyed their belief in his stuff but emphasized his need to work on keeping it in the zone.

“There's plenty of mix in the arsenal, and now, with the uptick in velo, it's, again, ‘How good can you be?’” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Strike acquisition, count leverage, those things being critical. For Robby, it's like, really, just kind of go down there and build off of what you did here. We're a real buyer in what the stuff looks like and now just access the zone as frequently as you can, especially early on, to allow you to maintain count leverage and keep hitters on their heels.”

In his return to Double-A Pensacola to kick off his season, Snelling has used the feedback.

Entering Thursday, Snelling has a 2.42 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in five starts, pitching into the sixth and giving up one earned run or fewer in three of them. He has 33 strikeouts and seven walks in 26 innings, with four of those free passes coming his last time out on April 30.

“I thought that this year I'd potentially be starting up [at Triple-A] with how I threw last year in that one start, but I also understand that there's steps that you have to take to get up there,” Snelling said. “Nothing changes for me. I'm going to come here and throw and do my thing, and there's a plan for everything. Excited to see how this year goes.”