Robby Snelling’s fast track to the big leagues hit a major speed bump during the 2024 season as the consensus top-50 minor-league prospect struggled for the first time in his baseball career and was traded as a result.

But Snelling bounced back with one of the strongest 2025 seasons of any prospect, pitching to a 2.51 ERA over 136 innings while collecting a minor-league Gold Glove and pushing himself to the brink of a major-league debut.

That resurrection from rising star to fallen star to rising again was born in Atlanta last offseason. Facing a failed season for the first time, Snelling spent last winter at Maven Baseball Lab, a data-driven facility suggested to Snelling by his former minor-league teammate Dylan Lesko, who, like Snelling, was a first-round pick in 2022.

Working with pitching coach Sean McLaughlin at Maven, Snelling shook off some of the bad habits pushed on him during the 2024 season, which included a changed location on the rubber and new arm slot that got the lefty off track.

Among the changes made last offseason was relocating the Reno native and McQueen High alum to the first-base side of the rubber where he had his greatest success as a prep and early pro player.

“Last year when I started struggling a little bit, we were tinkering with everything that we could and so I kind of got moved over to the middle-ish, third-base side of the rubber as an experiment to see if that was going to help anything play any different, and it didn’t,” Snelling said. “I still struggled last year. So, last offseason when I went to Maven and I was talking to Sean, my pitching guy, he was, like, ‘Hey, man. Where are you comfortable at because I can tell you’re not comfortable?’

“I kind of explained to him, ‘I want to go back to everything I was doing in 2023.’ I threw great in 2023 and then we came into ’24 and we started trying to change my breaking ball, we started trying to change my slot. We added a changeup, which lowered my arm slot. We were just messing with things in ’24, and I wasn’t happy with it. I didn’t really see the necessity in changing anything. Why are we changing stuff or fiddling with stuff after coming off a really good year in ’23? But I wanted to be a big-leaguer as soon as I could, so I was listening.”

In retrospect, Snelling said he listened to too many people during the 2024 season and should have been firmer in his conviction to say “No” to things he didn’t agree with. After dominating as a 19-year-old pro in 2023, going 11-3 with a 1.82 ERA in 22 starts, his follow-up season was a mess. In 2024, Snelling went 4-10 with a 5.15 ERA. His strikeout rate fell. His walks rose. His velocity dipped. Hence, the reset at Maven.

Snelling left Reno for Atlanta on Jan. 20 where he stayed until Feb. 12, spending almost two months with McLaughlin to rebuild his delivery, his stuff and his confidence.

“I was like, ‘All right, obviously what I did last offseason wasn’t working for me,’ so I needed a little more help than what I could get in specific areas in California and Reno,” Snelling said. “I went down to Sean, tried it out, clicked with him right away. Great guy. Young mind. He’s fresh out of baseball, so he know the struggles that players are going through right now and different things that we might face that he could have faced.”

He went from Atlanta straight to Florida for spring training with the Miami Marlins, who dealt for Snelling in July 2024 amid his struggles in the Padres’ organization. The 21-year-old said he felt great going into the season and showed that early as he allowed only four earned runs in his first four starts for the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos. Then came struggles. Over his next seven starts, Snelling allowed 23 runs in 32 innings, posting a 6.47 ERA.

“I started off the season really strong and then I kind of hit a three-games skid where I started walking guys,” Snelling said. “I think I gave up 13 runs in those three games and I walked 13 guys. Whether each walk that I gave up ended up scoring, the 13 walks were comparable to the 13 runs I gave up, and I was frustrated with that. I had been thrown well for the beginning of the season. It was great. Then I hit that three-game skid and I’m kind of looking at things and I was, like, ‘What’s going on? I’m not getting complacent with anything. I’m not really frustrated with anything. Body feels good. I’m healthy. I’m throwing hard still.’ You kind of go back to the drawing board and start something new.”

After a mental reset and change to his between-starts routine, Snelling found his groove again. After back-to-back-to-back strong outings, Snelling was promoted to the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp where he dominated. In 11 starts at that level, Snelling went 6-2 with a 1.27 ERA, striking out 81 batters in 63.2 innings while winning the Triple-A national championship over the Las Vegas Aviators.

Snelling ended the season once again on top-100 prospect lists and seems poised to make his big-league debut in 2026. In addition to his great pitching, Snelling was honored with one of nine Gold Gloves awarded to minor leaguers this month after having an errorless season and watching 90 percent of players attempting to steal off him and catcher Joe Mack thrown out, a stat Snelling called “insane.”

Snelling said he learned a lot in 2024 about filtering the messaging he’s getting to ensure he’s not making unnecessary changes.

“Just learning to trust yourself and trust your body and knowing, ‘Hey, people are going to try and put a thumbprint on you and they’re going to try and say they’re part of the reason why you’re a big leaguer,’ and it’s OK to say no to certain people,” Snelling said. “I had a lot of people telling me what they thought I should do, and I was listening to a little too many of those people telling me what they thought I should do to be a big-leaguer. Really just being able to find the happy medium of who really has my best interest in mind and what stuff actually makes sense because if I’m getting told my breaking ball is not good but it has a 30 percent swing-and-miss rate, you probably shouldn’t stop throwing that breaking ball.”

The former first-round draft pick admitted he was disappointed he didn’t get called to the big leagues this season based on his performance. Currently in Reno, Snelling plans on going back to Maven later this offseason to prepare for the 2026 campaign. Now so close to the majors, Snelling has allowed himself to think about making that major-league debut.

“Growing up as a kid playing baseball, that’s what every kid wants to do and every kid dreams about it,” Snelling said. “I think that no matter how much you think about it and how much I dream about it and try to imagine what it’s gonna be like, I think it’s going to blow it away. I don’t think there’s gonna be anything you can think or try and compare to that is really going to be similar or close to how I actually feel when I get up there. Hopefully it’s soon. I’m not trying to jump the gun on it or anything. I’ll just continue hoping for it and working towards it.”

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter at @ByChrisMurray.