Snelling was a four-star football recruit as a linebacker that led Robert McQueen High School in Reno, Nev., to the state championship game as a senior¡named Region Player of the Year following the season¡his father, Jim, has been the head football coach at McQueen since 2009...Snelling originally committed to play college baseball for the Stanford Cardinal at the end of his freshman year of high school, but decommitted during his junior year after he began also getting recruited for football¡received 15 full-ride football scholarship offers from the likes of Notre Dame, Oregon, UCLA, Nebraska, Virginia and Ole Miss¡ he then committed to play both baseball and football for the Arizona Wildcats, but decommitted when baseball coach Jay Johnson left to coach the LSU Tigers, where he then committed to LSU to play baseball...During the summer of 2021, he participated in the High School All-American Game as well as in the All-Star High School Home Run Derby at Coors Field where he hit 21 home runs, ranking fourth among the eight competitors...Earned Gatorade Nevada Baseball Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2022, going 8-0 with a 0.56 ERA and a state record 145 strikeouts against six walks, while also batting .362 with six home runs¡he broke the state record for strikeouts in a game with 20 in a seven-inning game¡following the season's end, he traveled to San Diego where he participated in the Draft Combine...After being drafted 39th overall in 2022, he focused solely on baseball for his first time since his youth at extended Spring Training and the fall instructional league in Arizona, working on training and nutritional changes to help shave some 10 pounds that he had built as a blue-chip football recruit...Worked closely with Lake Elsinore¡¯s pitching coach Thomas Eshelman, a 2015 second-round pick, at his first stop in 2023. Snelling credits Eshelman with instruction and guidance that set the tone for his breakout season: ¡°I think Lake Elsinore was a great spot for me,¡± Snelling told Baseball America, ¡°Because at that point, I will admit, I didn¡¯t really have any general idea how to be a pitcher. I¡¯d go out and throw the ball, but the knowledge behind how to truly understand hitters, how to break down hitters and approach, it wasn¡¯t completely there yet. Tom helped me get there.¡± Eshelman will serve as High-A Fort Wayne¡¯s pitching coach in 2024.
2023
Began his professional career with Single-A Lake Elsinore and did not allow more than 1 earned run in 9 of his 11 starts for the Storm, leading to a 5-1 record, 1.57 ERA (9 ER, 51.2 IP), 1.01 WHIP and a 59-to-13 SO/BB ratio before his promotion to High-A Fort Wayne, and later Double-A San Antonio...Earned the win in three consecutive starts from April 21-May 5, allowing 2 ER across 15.0 IP (1.20 ERA) while limiting hitters to a .160 AVG...Earned California League Pitching of the Week honors on May 9, and his production at Lake Elsinore earned Cal League Pitcher of the Year and Post-Season All-Star honors...Promoted to Fort Wayne on June 27, where he allowed 2 ER-or-fewer in six of his seven starts, including 1 ER-or-fewer in four of the seven¡he went 4-2 with a 2.34 ERA (9 ER, 34.2 IP) and a 40-to-11 SO/BB ratio...Posted his second three-start win streak of the campaign from July 25-Aug. 8, allowing just one ER across 16.0 IP (0.56 ERA) with a 20-to-2 SO/BB ratio and .197 opp. AVG over the stretch...Promoted to SA on Aug. 22, where he was nearly six years younger than the average Double-A player, and allowed 1 ER-or-fewer in all four of his regular season starts for the Missions, going 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA (3 ER, 17.1 IP) and a .190 opp. AVG...In his 2nd start with SA on Aug. 30, he teamed up with Ethan Salas, the widely ranked top catching prospect in baseball, as the batterymate for 5.0 hitless frames with nine strikeouts in the Missions¡¯ 9-2 win over Wichita...Concluded his season with getting the ball for the Game 1 start in the Texas League semifinals against Amarillo on Sept. 19, allowing three ER across 4.0 innings in SA¡¯s 12-11 extra-inning win¡it was their lone win in the series before dropping Games 2 & 3¡he allowed two HR in the contest, which were half as many as the four HR he allowed during his 22 regular season starts...Since 2000, just seven teenage Minor League pitchers have recorded a sub-2.00 ERA in 100 innings-or-more¡Snelling is joined on the list by Cole Hamels (2003), Will Inman (2006), Madison Bumgarner (2008), Michael Pi?eda (2008), Jose Fernandez (2012) and Andrew Painter (2022)¡among that group, Painter and Snelling were the only 2 to reach Double-A...Snelling is the second-ever Baseball America Minor League Pitcher of the Year (also: Andrew Painter in ¡¯22)¡of the 20 Baseball America Minor League Players of the Year from 2001-21, just four were pitchers: Josh Beckett (2001), Jeff Francis (2004), Jeremy Hellickson (2010) and Blake Snell (2015)¡.the volume and games played advantage offered by a top position player was the main reason why Baseball America introduced a Minor League Pitcher of the Year award in ¡¯22, to acknowledge the best season by a pitching prospect...Following the season, Snelling also garnered the Padres internal Minor League Pitcher of the Year accolade.
2022
Began his professional career with Single-A Lake Elsinore and did not allow more than one earned run in nine of his 11 starts for the Storm, leading to a 5-1 record, 1.57 ERA (9 ER, 51.2 IP), 1.01 WHIP and a 59-to-13 SO/BB ratio before his promotion to High-A Fort Wayne, and later Double-A San Antonio...Earned the win in three consecutive starts from April 21-May 5, allowing two ER across 15.0 IP (1.20 ERA) while limiting hitters to a .160 AVG...Earned California League Pitching of the Week honors on May 9, and his production at Lake Elsinore earned Cal League Pitcher of the Year and Post-Season All-Star honors...Promoted to Fort Wayne on June 27, where he allowed two ER-or-fewer in six of his seven starts, including one ER-or-fewer in four of the seven¡he went 4-2 with a 2.34 ERA (9 ER, 34.2 IP) and a 40-to-11 SO/BB ratio...Posted his second three-start win streak of the campaign from July 25-Aug. 8, allowing just one ER across 16.0 IP (0.56 ERA) with a 20-to-2 SO/BB ratio and .197 opp. AVG over the stretch...Promoted to SA on Aug. 22, where he was nearly six years younger than the average Double-A player, and allowed one ER-or-fewer in all four of his regular season starts for the Missions, going 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA (3 ER, 17.1 IP) and a .190 opp. AVG...In his second start with SA on August 30, he teamed up with Ethan Salas, the widely ranked top catching prospect in baseball, as the batterymate for 5.0 hitless frames with nine strikeouts in the Missions¡¯ 9-2 win over Wichita...Concluded his season with getting the ball for the Game 1 start in the Texas League semifinals against Amarillo on Sept. 19, allowing three ER across 4.0 innings in SA¡¯s 12-11 extra-inning win¡it was their lone win in the series before dropping Games 2 & 3¡he allowed two HR in the contest, which were half as many as the four HR he allowed during his 22 regular season starts...Since 2000, just seven teenage Minor League pitchers have recorded a sub-2.00 ERA in 100 innings-or-more¡Snelling is joined on the list by Cole Hamels (2003), Will Inman (2006), Madison Bumgarner (2008), Michael Pi?eda (2008), Jose Fernandez (2012) and Andrew Painter (2022)¡among that group, Painter and Snelling were the only two to reach Double-A...Snelling is the second-ever Baseball America Minor League Pitcher of the Year (also: Andrew Painter in ¡¯22)¡of the 20 Baseball America Minor League Players of the Year from 2001-21, just four were pitchers: Josh Beckett (2001), Jeff Francis (2004), Jeremy Hellickson (2010) and Blake Snell (2015)¡.the volume and games played advantage offered by a top position player was the main reason why Baseball America introduced a Minor League Pitcher of the Year award in ¡¯22, to acknowledge the best season by a pitching prospect...Following the season, Snelling also garnered the Padres internal Minor League Pitcher of the Year accolade.
