Malcom Nunez

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

2018
DSL:  415/498/774, 164 AB, 16 2B, 2 3B, 13 HR, 26 BB, 29 K, 3-3 SB

In his debut, Nunez put up playstation numbers in the DSL, winning the league’s triple crown.  Probably a good deal of his dominance was him being more physically advanced than most of the league’s players.  He spent most of his time at third, with five games at first.  Baseball America rated him the Cards’ ninth best prospect after the season.

2019
R+:  254/336/385, 130 AB, 11 2B, 2 HR, 13 BB, 32 K, 3-5 SB
A:  183/247/197, 71 AB, 1 2B, 5 BB, 15 K

The Cards tried Nunez in low A, where he had a very rough time.  After a few weeks they sent him to extended spring training, then moved him to the advanced rookie Appalachian League.  He held his own there, without showing much power.  The Cards employed Nunez strictly at third and he had error problems, posting an .874 fielding percentage.  BA ranked him 18th in the system.

2020
DNP

Nunez spent the pandemic season at St. Louis’ alternate training site.  BA ranked him 17th in the system.

2021
A+:  285/351/453, 137 AB, 10 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 11 BB, 27 K, 5-7 SB
AA:  257/330/371, 202 AB, 5 2B, 6 HR, 21 BB, 44 K, 2-3 SB

The Cards sent Nunez to high A to open the season and he hit well.  After about six weeks they moved him up to AA and he just held his own, although at 20 he was young for the level.  He again played third exclusively.

2022
AA (StL):  255/360/463, 298 AB, 11 2B, 17 HR, 48 BB, 71 K, 4-6 SB
AA:  286/381/476, 105 AB, 5 2B, 5 HR, 17 BB, 27 K, 1-1 SB
AAA:  231/412/462, 13 AB, 1 HR, 4 BB, 5 K

Nunez returned to AA and put up better numbers, with considerably more power.  He also sharply increased his walk rate.  One major caution:  before the trade, Nunez hit all but one of his home runs at his home park in Springfield, which is a strong home run ballpark.  This time he played mostly at first.  BA ranked him 13th in the Cards’ system at mid-season.  After the trade, Nunez continued to improve his hitting a little.  He hit six post-trade longballs, obviously none of them in Springfield, so hopefully the extreme home-road split before the trade was mostly statistical noise.  For Altoona, Nunez mostly played first, then he played third during his brief time at Indianapolis.

Nunez appears to have some hitting potential, but there’ll be a lot of pressure on his bat because he may end up as a DH-only player.  He’s eligible for the Rule 5 draft and the Pirates did not protect him.  They were probably gambling on the fact that first-base-only players attract little interest in the draft.  If so, the gamble worked out.