MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Robby Snelling was already receiving autograph requests from young Marlins fans 24 hours before his first Major League Baseball start.<\/p>\n
The Marlins sure hope that will become a new norm for their No. 2 pitching prospect, who was called up this week from Triple-A Jacksonville to make his MLB debut Friday against the Washington Nationals. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal,\u201d Snelling said in Miami\u2019s clubhouse Thursday before walking over to the dugout where fans yelled for his signature. \u201cStill trying to just kind of soak it in and get acclimated with all the guys again that I was around in spring and really take it all in and not let the moment get too big.\u201d<\/p>\n
The left-handed Snelling, selected 39th by San Diego in the 2022 amateur draft, was dealt to Miami in a 2024 package that sent left-hander Tanner Scott and righty Bryan Hoeing to the Padres.<\/p>\n
Snelling did not make the Marlins\u2019 initial 40-man roster despite impressing coaches during spring training. He called that both frustrating and motivating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was upset and not necessarily at anybody in general,\u201d Snelling said. \u201cJust being told that you\u2019re not going to get to do what you really had wanted to do as early as you wanted to do is a tough pill to swallow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then you kind of come back down to earth and realize, \u2018Alright, what do I need to do to get to that point where I want to be?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So he worked on lowering his walks, in part by improving his first-pitch strike rate. In six starts with Triple-A Jacksonville this season, Snelling went 3-1 with the second-best ERA (1.86) among qualified pitchers. He walked more than three batters only twice in those six starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting because Robby\u2019s a great competitor,\u201d said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. \u201dHe\u2019s worked really hard. He\u2019s performing in a manner that he\u2019s very deserving of this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spot opened up in the Marlins\u2019 rotation after struggling pitcher Chris Paddack was designated for assignment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old Paddack signed a one-year, $4 million free agent deal with the Marlins in the offseason and was targeted for an end-of-the rotation role. But Paddack struggled in his seven starts, posting an 0-5 record and 7.63 ERA and completing six innings in only one of his appearances.<\/p>\n
There were other experienced options Miami could have inserted there, including left-hander Braxton Garrett, but Snelling\u2019s recent performance showed the team he was ready for the opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into it we were certainly very high on Robby,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cHe performed incredibly well last year. This spring, he came into it in competition potentially for a spot in our rotation. Robby\u2019s done well down there and continued to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jumbo Shrimp were coming off a walk-off win on Wednesday when Snelling got the news he was called up. He was summoned to manager David Carpenter\u2019s office afterward, where he was praised for his focus throughout the week with the uncertainty on whether his major league shot would come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Man, it\u2019s really hard to keep my sanity knowing that potentially it was an option for me to go up,\u2019\u201d Snelling recalled telling Carpenter, who responded with a rather nonchalant question.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re still good to go on Friday right?\u2019\u201d Carpenter said, referring to Snelling\u2019s scheduled Triple-A start. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 And he goes, \u2018Well, you\u2019re going to be throwing in Miami.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Snelling described the past couple of days as a sort of reunion with players he became close with during the spring, including catcher Joe Mack, another highly-rated prospect who was called up this week. Mack scored the winning run on a throwing error in the ninth inning of the Marlins\u2019 win over Baltimore on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It has also made Snelling grateful for the journey that brought him here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always fun competing with those guys (in the minors),\u201d he said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t really matter where I was in my mind. Obviously this is the goal \u2014 being up here and staying up here is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n
Alanis Thames, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Robby Snelling was already receiving autograph requests from young Marlins fans 24 hours before his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-782481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}