Robby Snelling discusses disappointment of having baseball 'ripped away' from him

[Kevin Barral]

MIAMI, FL — On Sunday morning, Robby Snelling returned to loanDepot park for the first time after undergoing left elbow UCL repair with an internal brace.

Snelling, Fish On First's No. 2 prospect, made his major league debut in the series opener against the Washington Nationals. He went five innings allowing three runs on five hits (one home run), four walks and two strikeouts. It was during the start that the young lefty felt a pull in his forearm.

"I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like," Snelling said. "Obviously, now I do. I threw a breaking ball. It was in the middle of the outing and felt a little different than all the other pitches. I threw another fastball, I was still 95-96, and was still locating. I wasn’t super worried about it. I thought it just came out different. I wasn’t hurting at all after that. Nothing really tightened up, and I was able to go throughout the rest of the outing the way that I did."

It wasn't until Snelling threw his bullpen session in Minnesota on the following road trip that he reported discomfort. "I just couldn’t trust my arm to be able to go out on that start and try and throw 95."

Snelling joins another highly ranked Marlins pitching prospect, Kevin Defrank, in being sidelined for the remainder of the season due to an arm injury. The organization's top overall prospect, Thomas White, is also on the injured list, though that is believed to be the result of a minor blister issue. Adam Mazur, who the Marlins acquired in a package with Snelling in 2024, underwent a full UCL reconstruction earlier this year.

Just a few years ago, any injury like Snelling's would have been addressed with Tommy John surgery, but an innovative internal brace technique could speed up his rehab. The Marlins announced an expected absence of 10-12 months, which Snelling called the "best-case scenario."

With that being said, the 22-year-old was understandably sad about baseball being "ripped away" from him mere days after reaching the big leagues.

"Getting a little taste of it and realizing how special it is to be up here and how important winning is, it’s refreshing," Snelling said. "In the minor leagues, you obviously want to win, but a lot of is about development, and when you finally get up to the big leagues, development is important, but every time you step out onto the field, you just want to win with your team and the guys that you are with in the locker room, so being removed so quickly from that is really hard.”

When asked who he will go to for advice about overcoming this setback, one name that he mentioned was Texas Rangers starting pitcher and former Marlin Nathan Eovaldi.

"He’s been through a lot in his career, and he’s been a great soundboard for me to be able to use," Snelling said.

If not for the injury, Snelling would have had an extended opportunity to establish himself in the Marlins rotation. With him out of the picture for the rest of 2026, the current starting five consists of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer, Janson Junk and Tyler Phillips. Newly converted to a starter after dominating out of the bullpen, Phillips held the New York Mets scoreless for 3 ⅔ innings on Sunday.

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