McQueen High alum Robby Snelling was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Miami Marlins on Tuesday in the final hours before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline closed.
A preseason top-100 prospect in the minors, Snelling has struggled this season but still carried a lot of trade value. The left-handed pitcher was dealt with fellow prospects RHP Adam Mazur, INF Graham Pauley and INF Jay Beshears in exchange for Marlins closer Tanner Scott and fellow reliever Bryan Hoeing as the Padres go all-in during this trade deadline.
Snelling was a first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2022 and Baseball America’s minor-league pitcher of the year after an outstanding first full season as a professional. He became just the seventh teenageminor-league pitcher to record a sub-2.00 ERA over 100 innings when accomplishing that last season across three levels (Low-A, High-A, Double-A). That thrust him up prospect lists with the 20-year-old ranked 27th by Baseball America and 36th by MLB Pipeline among minor-league prospects entering 2024.
While Snelling got off to a strong start this season in Double-A, he has struggled of late. Snelling is 2-8 with a 6.01 ERA in 16 starts in San Antonio, allowing 90 hits, 49 earned runs, 14 homers and 33 walks in 73.1 innings while striking out 67 batters. Still, Snelling made this year’s Futures Games, a showcase for the top prospects in the minors before the All-Star Game. Snelling retired the only batter he faced in that contest.
Snelling will get a fresh start in Miami, a franchise that’s historically struggled and is entering another in a series of rebuilds, although the Marlins have been known for developing high-level pitchers in recent years. San Diego, meanwhile, has made a flurry of trades this week, including dealing its other first-round pick from 2022, right-hander Dylan Lesko, to Tampa Bay for reliever Jason Adam. In Scott, the Padres get arguably the top left-handed reliever in baseball. A 2024 All-Star, Scott has 18 saves with a1.18 ERA this season.
The No. 39 pick in 2022, Snelling remains a probable major-league in time and should now have a clearer path to the big leagues in Miami, which underwent a general manager change this offseason and has made a series of moves this week to prioritize restocking its farm system. Snelling is ranked the 132nd-best prospect in baseball, per FanGraphs, which writes:
“Snelling’s best pitch is his uphill low-90s fastball, which has lost a couple of ticks this year. The pitch lives more off of angle and deception than riding life and velocity. None of Snelling’s secondary pitches have generated an above-average rate of swing-and-miss as a pro, and that includes his 2023 season with the sterling ERAs. His 84-87 mph changeup has been his most used secondary offering so far in 2024, which might be a developmental effort rather than an indication that it’s his out-pitch. It isn’t great from a stuff standpoint. Snelling’s arm speed when he throws it is actually pretty good, but it lacks movement. The better of his secondary offerings is his 78-80 mph, 2,200 rpm slider, which is effective as a strike-stealing pitch but lacks the depth of a finisher. Snelling goes right at hitters and is a poised on-mound competitor. He’s going to throw enough strikes to be a starter, but his stuff quality is going to limit his impact. Here he’s 40+’d rather than just 40’d because we like Snelling as an athlete and competitor and think he’ll work efficiently enough to handle a truck-load of innings.”