MIAMI (AP) — Robby Snelling was already receiving autograph requests from young Marlins fans 24 hours before his first Major League Baseball start.
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.
“It's pretty surreal,” Snelling said in Miami's clubhouse Thursday before walking over to the dugout where fans yelled for his signature. “Still 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.”
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.
Snelling did not make the Marlins' initial 40-man roster despite impressing coaches during spring training. He called that both frustrating and motivating.
“I was upset and not necessarily at anybody in general,” Snelling said. "Just being told that you’re 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.
“But then you kind of come back down to earth and realize, ‘Alright, what do I need to do to get to that point where I want to be?’”
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.
“It’s exciting because Robby’s a great competitor," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "He’s worked really hard. He’s performing in a manner that he’s very deserving of this opportunity.”
A spot opened up in the Marlins' rotation after struggling pitcher Chris Paddack was designated for assignment on Tuesday.
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.
There were other experienced options Miami could have inserted there, including left-hander Braxton Garrett, but Snelling's recent performance showed the team he was ready for the opportunity.
“Coming into it we were certainly very high on Robby," McCullough said. “He performed incredibly well last year. This spring, he came into it in competition potentially for a spot in our rotation. Robby’s done well down there and continued to perform.”
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's office afterward, where he was praised for his focus throughout the week with the uncertainty on whether his major league shot would come.
“I was like, 'Man, it’s really hard to keep my sanity knowing that potentially it was an option for me to go up,’” Snelling recalled telling Carpenter, who responded with a rather nonchalant question.
“He’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re still good to go on Friday right?'” Carpenter said, referring to Snelling's scheduled Triple-A start. "I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, 'Well, you’re going to be throwing in Miami.'"
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' win over Baltimore on Thursday.
It has also made Snelling grateful for the journey that brought him here.
“It was always fun competing with those guys (in the minors)," he said. “It didn’t really matter where I was in my mind. Obviously this is the goal — being up here and staying up here is the goal.”
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FILE - Miami Marlins pitcher Robby Snelling works out during spring training baseball, Feb. 15, 2026, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Countries around the world are preparing to deal with the more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands.
The vessel is expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, early Sunday.
At least three passengers have died, and several other people have been infected.
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. Some scientists believe the Andes virus implicated in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. But the World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public from the outbreak is low. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Authorities and the cruise operator have been providing updates, but some key information is still lacking.
Here's what we don't know:
Argentine investigators suspect a Dutch couple may have first contracted the virus while on a bird-watching trip before they boarded the cruise ship in Argentina on April 1. But no organization has confirmed where or how they acquired the disease.
Argentina’s Health Ministry has zeroed in on the nation's southernmost town, Ushuaia. Officials plan to travel there in the coming days, according to a written statement to The Associated Press.
Spanish authorities are preparing to receive the remaining passengers and crew members on Tenerife. Officials said Friday that passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only once their repatriation flights are ready to take them.
The United States agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to pick up its citizens, as will the British government. American passengers will be brought to a dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Nebraska for assessment, officials said Friday.
Other countries have not yet made their plans public, and it is not clear how long boat passengers will have to wait for their flights.
Spain has requested medically equipped planes for passengers experiencing symptoms, Virginia Barcones, the country's head of emergency services, said Friday.
Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions and Dutch officials said Thursday that more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship at the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic on April 24.
They included a Dutch woman who disembarked with her husband's body. He was the first passenger to die, but it wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger.
The delay left countries scrambling to track the passengers who got off the ship some two weeks earlier.
The passengers included a resident of the remote island of Tristan da Cunha who has been hospitalized with symptoms of hantavirus, according to the British Foreign Office.
Stephen Doughty, the U.K. minister of overseas territories, said in a message to the British overseas territory that his thoughts were with “the islander currently in hospital and their spouse who is isolating.”
Many of the passengers who disembarked at St. Helena traveled on to other countries, including the Dutch woman whose husband died on board. She flew to Johannesburg then briefly boarded a plane preparing to fly to Amsterdam. She was removed because she was too ill to travel, and later died.
South African and Dutch authorities are trying to trace the whereabouts of anyone who had contact with the woman during her travels. A flight attendant who had contact with her has tested negative for hantavirus after reporting symptoms.
Some governments, like the United Kingdom, have confirmed the whereabouts of their citizens who left the boat. However, U.K. officials do not know or have not made public how many others they have come into contact with since.
In the U.S., some state officials said they were monitoring a small number of residents who were on the ship and already went home. None have symptoms.
Spanish Civil Guard officers and port authorities inspect the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
FILE - Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)
