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    Pablo Nunez, Hansel Jimenez have 2-hit days in winter league ball

    Doug Gray 9

    Sunday saw two Cincinnati Reds prospects take the field for Sydney down in the Australian Winter League as they took on Adelaide. Pablo Nunez, who has been among the league leaders in batting average all season, picked up two hits out of the leadoff spot. The center fielder went 2-5, scored a run, doubled, and he drove in two runs. Those two runs put the Blue Sox in the lead and they never looked back in what turned out to be a 7-3 win to move to 20-11. They remain the only team in the 4-team league that is above the .500 mark.

    The double for Pablo Nunez broke a long streak of no extra-base hits. The Venezuelan outfielder doubled twice in his second game with Sydney back on November 15. He would add another double on November 28th. Then he went 21 games without an extra-base hit until Sunday. With his two hits in the game he’s now hitting .333/.441/.368 through 31 games played with the Blue Sox.

    Hansel Jimenez was in the lineup for Sydney as the starting shortstop and he was hitting 6th in the lineup. The infielder picked up two hits of his own on Sunday. Like teammate Pablo Nunez, one of his hits also happened to be a double and he drove in a run as he padded the Blue Sox lead to 5-2 in the 8th inning.

    Also like Nunez he had been in a rather long extra-base hit drought. Hansel Jimenez homered in the first game of the year. After eight games he had added another home run and two doubles. It would be 12 games before he would pick up another extra-base hit – hitting his 3rd homer of the winter on December 18th. It would then be another 11 games until he had another extra-base hit on Sunday. Jimenez, who has been in a slump, saw his two hits raise his line on the season to .206/.313/.330 in 114 plate appearances.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    9 Responses

    2. Love Nunez’s contact rates and plate discipline, but he’s definitely going to need to add a little bit of power as he matures. Not saying he needs to be a double digit home run hitter or anything, i’m just fine with a table setter, but he needs enough to keep teams honest and at least be a gap to gap threat with the occasional ball that goes over the fence to keep the field from shrinking with the OF’s moved in.

      1. To be a big league starter in today’s game you pretty much do need to be a double-digit home run hitter. There were 13 players last year who had 500 plate appearances and didn’t hit 10 home runs. The other 133 players with 500 plate appearance had double-digit home runs.

        1. I mean, if Nunez hits .315 with a .415 OBP, i’ll be just fine with him hitting 5 HR and about 30 2B with maybe a couple triples sprinkled in there. Even if he is a LF. That’s what i’d consider just enough power. If he has a .415 OBP over 600+ PA, that sounds pretty dang nice for a leadoff hitter.

          1. Since 2010 zero players have had 5 home runs or less and posted a .415 OBP or higher. Only six players have posted an OBP of .415 or better in that time frame while hitting fewer than 20 home runs.

            The only players to even have a .415 OBP twice since the start of 2010 are: Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Joey Votto, Juan Soto, Miguel Cabrera, and Mike Trout.

            It sure sounds like a great leadoff hitter. But it’s also something that no one has shown they can do in modern baseball.

      2. Given their physique, as well as that spectacular defensive highlight of Nunez throwing out a runner at home from early on down under, I gave half a thought to Nunez perhaps resembling Carlos Jorge.

        Jorge’s first DSL season at age 17 saw him hit .346/.436/.579 with 3 HR’s, 8 2B, 10 3B, 24 BBs and 32 Ks.

        Nunez hit .257/.371/.343, with 0 HR’s, 6 2B, 3 3B, 24 BBs and 16 Ks in his first DSL year at age 17.

        His year two in the DSL at 18 saw him hit .327/.542/.413, with 1 Hrs, 4 2B, 1 3B, 41 BBs and 6 Ks.

        Jorge spent his age 18 season in the ACL where he hit .261/.405/.529, with 7 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 25 BBs and 41 Ks.

        So, for one, second year success in the DSL is a good thing. A second year assignment to the ACL is better.

        Second, a presumption of Jorge and Nunez being similar due to their CF defense and smaller build is pretty much where the similarities start and end.

        Third, that I am posting about a less than half thought out idea must mean it’s January and topics are thinning out.

        Fourth, I’m quietly excited to see what Carlos Jorge does this year.

        Michael Siani took off a bit at AA when he was 22, hitting .252/.351/.404, lowering his K’s and increasing his BBs, much as Jorge did in 2025.

        Maybe Jorge will use his age 22 season at AA for the same, boosting his production enough for a team to give him a shot at a ML job as with Siani.

    3. Good to see some of the young guys putting in the work to get better. I’d love to see most of the minor leaguers do the same. This league is a perfect stepping stone for the DSL kids. Since it seems ABL is having some financial struggles it might behoove MLB to help them out.

    4. My position on Nunez and many players like him is that if he can play good defense, keep his BB% north of 10%, keep his K% south of 15% and have an ISO greater than .100 that there is a spot for him in the majors.

      Many of the 13 players Doug mentioned do only 2 of these 4 and play everyday.

      At this point, my guess is that Nunez will be a good CF. His BB% is really good right now. But if he makes the majors pitchers will not be walking a player who has a ISO less than .100. That said, Gavin Lux had a .105 ISO and a 11.1% BB% last year. Friedl was .117 and 11.8%. If a player can have a .364 OBP like Friedl it plays no matter how many HR you hit.

      Hayes had 7 HR and a 3.1 WAR in 2022. He was great on D but had a .101 ISO, an 8.6% BB% and a 21.8% K%

      Nico Hoerner had 7 HR last year and a 4.8 WAR. His K% and defense were great but he had a 6% BB% and an ISO of .097

      But there is a great distance to cover between the DSL and the majors. It will be an interesting 5 years.

      1. Step one is how he handles the complex leagues, where many prospects with high DSL numbers dreams go to die.

        1. Right. Nunez has put up intriguing numbers, and handling the strike zone well is a useful skill, but he’s a teenager listed at 5’10, 145 pounds. Maybe he will hit an Elly-like growth spurt; maybe he will be Billy Hamilton scrawny. Maybe he will continue to improve; maybe he will hit a ceiling fairly soon.

          We aren’t going to resolve those questions today.

          So, I’m just going to enjoy watching his progress and hope for the best. If about 1 in 5 of the intriguing but raw young players in the system make MLB, that is excellent.

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