Prospect Watch: Oddy Nunez Looking to Rediscover Himself in Bradenton
When pitcher Oddy Nunez was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2015, he was noted for being able to induce groundballs. He was a strong left-handed pitching prospect, which is always hard to find, with a power sinker that he could throw in the mid to upper 90s. His Pirates career started with a bang as he was working out of the bullpen, however, since the Pirates have stretched him out to become a starter things haven't been so easy. He has lost a few miles per hour on his sinker and opponents are starting to pick it up out of his hand. The other problem Nunez has faced is being able to stay healthy. Since he moved to full-season ball, he has had to endure three different stints on the Injured List and hasn't had a full healthy season since 2016.
Last year, he finally got his promotion to Advanced-A Bradenton, but a back strain would shut him down after just a month's worth of games. He made eight starts for the Marauders when he was initially fighting through the strain and went 1-1 with a 4.67 ERA in 34.1 innings of work. He allowed the highest opposition batting average of his career at .258 and he wasn't getting the ball down as much as he normally does. He struck out 20 batters in those 34 innings of work but struggled mightily with his control walking 21 batters. With his strikeouts low and his walks high, it left Nunez in several bad situations on the mound and he paid for it by giving up a lot of runs.
Nunez started his baseball career in the Dominican Republic and always stood out because he was a strong left-handed talent. With left-handed pitchers always in high demand, Nunez was almost guaranteed to get some looks from Major League scouts. He featured a sinker with strong movement that hit in the low to mid-90s, and he was able to force his opponents to hit the ball on the ground a lot. He didn't show very much stamina, mostly working as a reliever, but he would routinely throw 30 to 40 pitches at a time during showcases and for the most part, was able to hold his velocity. With the Pirates in desperate need of some left-handed pitching prospects, they signed Nunez on May 11th, 2015.
It was just in time for Nunez to make his professional debut that season, and he would start his career with the Dominican Summer League Pirates as a member of their bullpen. He put up a decent showing going 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in 11 games out of the bullpen that season. He showed good control of all three of his pitches with just 5 walks in 21.2 innings of work while picking up a 21.9 strikeout percentage. He used a heavy dose of his high-powered sinker and forced a lot of groundballs, and not many of them found holes. He had an opponent batting average of just .242 that season and showed that he could succeed right from the start of his career.
He did not allow an earned run over his first four appearances out of the bullpen, spanning 5.2 innings of work. This was a common trend throughout the season for the left-hander as he only had one outing where he gave up more than two earned runs all season. He routinely pitched multi-inning outings for the Pirates and was able to keep his velocity strong throughout. He finished the year with seven of his 11 appearances being of the scoreless variety and would end up moving to the states for the next season, but stayed in rookie ball where he would pitch for the GCL Pirates.
He would see a slight jump in his stats, but still had plenty of success working out of the bullpen as he posted a 2.34 ERA in 34.2 innings of work. The Pirates began the process of stretching Nunez out as he went from two-inning appearances to routinely making three and four-inning appearances out of the bullpen. The increase in workload didn't seem to have too much of an effect on the left-handed, with his only side effect being a raise in his walk rate as he allowed 12 free passes throughout the season. While every one of Nunez's appearances came from the bullpen in 2016, the Pirates were priming him for the transition he would face as he entered the 2017 season.
This was the year that Nunez would go from bullpen arm to starting pitcher as he joined the starting rotation at Low-A West Virginia. He would end up appearing in 25 games, making 24 starts and he put up very under the radar stats for the Power. He posted a 3.71 ERA in 114 innings of work and walked 32 batters while striking out 94. Nunez is a guy who likes to pitch to contact so the strikeout numbers were not that much of a surprise, and he was able to keep his opponent batting average below the .240 mark. His first two starts were atrocious as he gave up 11 runs in six innings of work, but after that, he started to settle into his new role.
The month of May ended up being his best month of the season as he shook off the early-season struggles. In five starts that month, Nunez posted a 2.95 ERA over 21.1 innings of work while striking out 22 batters. Nunez had a pair of rough outings at the end of July, and it was discovered that he needed to make the first trip to the Disabled List of his professional career. It wasn't a very long run, lasting the minimum seven days and he was back on the field for the month of August. After returning from the Disabled List, things were never the same for the left-hander as he gave up two or more earned runs in four of his final five starts, jacking his ERA up heading into the off-season.
He would earn a promotion to Advanced-A Bradenton the next season as he looked to get back on track in terms of his development. After easing himself back into the season, Nunez had a strong month of April posting a 1.90 ERA over his first five starts of the year, including a six-inning shutout on April 29th. However, things went awry in May as he gave up 17 earned runs in his five starts and he had to go back to square one. He would hit another bump in the road at the beginning of June and was forced back to the Disabled List, where he would miss another week of action.
The time off didn't seem to help Nunez and, with a 4.70 ERA at the beginning of August, Nunez was demoted to Low-A West Virginia to end the season. The move seemed to help the young left-hander as he posted a 2.17 ERA over his final seven games of the season and ended the year with a career-high 7.1 inning outing where he gave up just two earned runs. With Nunez's career seemingly back on track, the Pirates decided to give him another chance in Bradenton last season. Nunez worked in the Dominican Winter League that off-season and was coming back ready to make his mark at the Advanced-A level as he tried to make himself stand out as a top prospect.
Things would once again go awry for the left-hander as opponents hit .258 off of him and his ERA was once again up in the fours. He was giving the Marauders a lot of innings, working five or more in four starts, but he just wasn't posting the results the Pirates organization wanted to see. By his final three starts of the year, you could tell something was off as he lasted three innings or less in all of those starts. It was discovered that Nunez had suffered a back strain and he would be shut down for the rest of the 2019 season. The injury did not allow him to get his pitches as low as he would have liked to, and it was also affecting his overall results.
As we look ahead to Nunez's future with the Pirates, he will more than likely be sent back to Advanced-A Bradenton when Minor League Baseball resumes. He will have to get those control numbers back down and continue inducing groundballs the way he did in the lower levels of the Minor Leagues. He hasn't found success at the Advanced-A level to this point but, as a strong left-handed pitching prospect, the Pirates don't want to give up on Nunez just yet. He will be entering his age 24 season when 2021 comes around, which is a little old for a pitching prospect, but he is looking to turn that corner and climb the ladder in the Minor Leagues.
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