Nasim Nunez’s speed and defense have always been exceptional. However, for most of this season, the bat has been so bad that fans questioned whether the juice was worth the squeeze. At the end of May, Nunez’s OPS started with a 4, but he has been red hot in June.
It has been a wild turnaround for Nunez, who is hitting over .400 this month. In my opinion, there has been a shift in his approach that unlocked this. At the end of last season, Nasim Nunez hit 4 homers in September. That may have been the worst
thing to happen for him because it convinced him that he was a home run hitter.
For the first two months, Nunez’s swing was uphill, in an attempt to lift the ball. For a 5’8 165 pounder, selling out for power is not the ideal approach. This month, Nunez has been focusing on hitting line drives. In May, Nunez had a line drive percentage of just 11.3%. That number has risen all the way up to 39.5% in June. Nunez is hitting fewer ground balls and fly balls, replacing those with line drives.
Watching batting practice yesterday, I saw Nunez working on shooting lower line drives up the middle and the other way. For some hitters, pulling fly balls is the optimal approach. However, for Nunez, the pulled flyballs are just flyouts to the right fielder, rather than home runs.
Nunez’s best trait is his speed, and we want him to utilize that. Even though he was not getting on base a ton before this month, Nunez already has 29 stolen bases. His legs are such a weapon and put the fear of god into defenses. It is not just the steals either, Nunez also had a two triple game this month.
He came into the month with an OPS under .500, but now Nasim Nunez’s OPS is .609. Obviously that is not amazing, but with everything else that Nunez brings to the table, that number is fine. Seeing Nasim Nunez hit .412 so far this month is pretty wild.
Obviously, Nunez is not going to hit over .400 the rest of the season, but this approach is going to give him more success. He is leaning into the idea of just being a pest at the bottom of the lineup who will try to get on in any way possible. That can be with a sharp liner, a walk or a bunt base hit, which he has been doing a lot of lately.
If Nunez is not a complete liability at the plate, he is a very valuable player. We know about the speed, but the defense is also outstanding. He has been slightly mistake prone with 9 errors, but he makes a ton of spectacular plays. Nunez started a double play yesterday that was absolutely magical.
Like this post says, it does feel like Nunez makes at least one jaw dropping defensive play per series. On the season, Nunez has 4 outs above average and 5 FRV. If he can cut out the silly mistakes, he can be one of the best defenders in baseball.
At least according to one metric, Nunez is the best base runner in the sport. He tops Baseball Savant’s baserunning runs leaderboard, adding 5 runs on the bases. This month has really boosted Nunez’s WAR. For the season, Nasim has 1 WAR, with nearly all of it coming this month.
Some of the offensive production just comes from Nunez being on an unsustainable heater. However, this new approach should make him less of a problem offensively. It feels like the Nats have a different hitter getting red hot every month, and in June it has been Nasim Nunez’s turn.
