Buried on bench most of year, Nuñez made most of late opportunity

PLAYER REVIEW: NASIM NUÑEZ

Age on Opening Day 2025: 24

How acquired: Rule 5 Draft, 2023

MLB service time: 1 year

2024 salary: $740,000

Contract status: Under club control, arbitration-eligible in 2027, free agent in 2030

2024 stats: 51 G, 78 PA, 61 AB, 14 R, 15 H, 1 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 8 SB, 2 CS, 12 BB, 15 SO, .246 AVG, .370 OBP, .262 SLG, .632 OPS, 85 OPS+, 2 DRS, 2 OAA, 0.7 bWAR, 0.4 fWAR

Quotable: “Look, the kid worked his butt off every day. He works on all of his game. He really made the conscious effort to get better with his swing, be more consistent, understand how to play the game. And you can see when he’s out there playing, he’s done really well. But it was the work ethic he had all year long that enabled him to do what he’s doing. He doesn’t play that much, but he keeps himself ready every single day, which is awesome.” – Davey Martinez

2024 analysis: Nasim Nuñez had never played above Double-A prior to this season. The Nationals, though, saw potential in his glove work and baserunning skills, and believed it was worth taking a flier on him with the No. 1 pick in last winter’s Rule 5 Draft. They understood the risk: Nuñez would have to remain on the big league roster the entire season, the active roster at least 90 days. They decided it was worth it.

The plan all along was to play Nuñez sparingly, instead using this opportunity to work extensively with him in the field and at the plate. Third base coach Ricky Gutierrez (who also coaches the infielders) could be found with Nuñez almost every afternoon working on the field long before the rest of the team took batting practice, teaching the young player the finer points of defensive work at the major league level.

Playing time initially was incredibly rare. Nuñez started only three of the Nationals’ first 116 games, appearing off the bench another 24 times as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. He took only 17 plate appearances during that time, going 3-for-15 with two walks and three strikeouts. But the season’s final two months finally brought more playing time, especially in September when CJ Abrams was first dealing with a nagging injury and eventually was demoted to Triple-A for disciplinary reasons. Nuñez responded with his best performances of the season, both at the plate (12-for-46 with 10 walks and 12 strikeouts) and in the field (a host of highlight-reel plays).

2025 outlook: The traditional plan with Rule 5 Draft picks is simple: Survive a season with them on the big league roster, then take advantage of their options to send them to Triple-A to resume their development the following season. And that’s probably what will happen with Nuñez, who again has never spent a day at Triple-A and barely played in the majors this year.

But it’s possible his late-season performance could have opened some eyes within the organization and made some reconsider that plan. Club officials believed all along Nuñez was a big-league-caliber defensive player, especially at the premium position of shortstop. The concern was his limited offensive abilities.

To be clear, Nuñez still doesn’t provide much at the plate. Nearly all of his offensive success came from hitting the ball on the ground and either finding a hole or beating the throw to first. He produced only one extra-base hit, and remarkably, only two of his 15 hits this season landed beyond the infield cutout. But he did display some real plate discipline with a 15.4 percent walk rate, and he did legitimately show improvement as the season progressed.

The Nationals probably will still want Nuñez to get consistent playing time as the everyday shortstop in Rochester next year. But if for some reason they decided to move on from utility man Ildemaro Vargas, or if something else happened that created a hole at one of the middle infield positions, they might be more willing to consider him for a big league job now than they were at the start of the 2024 season.