The 2024 professional debut for Pablo Nunez was solid as he walked more than he struck out and had a .713 OPS as a 17-year-old for the Dominican Summer League Rojos. Things went much better than that in 2025 and before the year was over he had played games in three different countries and found success in all of them.

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The Cincinnati Reds had Pablo Nunez return to the Dominican Summer League in 2025, but this time he was assigned to the Reds instead of the Rojos. His season would get out to a good start as he went 2-3 with a stolen base in the opener and began the year with a 5-game hitting streak. While he would slow down a little bit over the rest of June, but in 20 games during the month he hit .350, got on base in every single game, walked 24 times, stole nine bases, and he had just one strikeout.

When the calendar flipped to July the outfielder from Venezuela went 2-4 with a steal and a strikeout on the 1st. But he then didn’t pick up another hit for 10 days, though  he only had nine at-bats during that time and he walked seven times. He broke out of his hitless run on the 11th, going 3-5. He would follow that up by hitting .308 over the next nine games, picking up three doubles and walking 10 times. That would be an end to his season.

The Reds cut his regular season short in the DSL in order to bring him to the US so he could participate in the bridge league in Arizona and then instructional league against more advanced competition. Following that he was then on his way to Australia where he helped lead the Sydney Blue Sox to the best record in the Australian Winter League.

For all 2025 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).

Position: Outfield | B/T: L/L

Height: 5′ 10″ | Weight: 145  lbs. | Acquired: International FA (2024) | Born: October 23, 2006

The stat line for Pablo Nunez in his limited time in 2025 with the DSL Reds was a bit of a head turner at the extremes. He set the league record for on-base percentage with a .542 mark. It did fall short of setting an organizational record, though, as the 1978 Gary Redus season in Billings saw him hit .462/.559/.787. Nunez joined Redus, Karl Kuehl (1961, .515 OBP), Carlos Sanchez (2022, .506 OBP), and Kal Daniels (1986, .503 OBP) as the only players since at least 1960 on the Reds farm to have 100 or more plate appearances and have an on-base percentage of .500 or higher.

But with such a high on-base percentage and a ridiculous walk-to-strikeout ratio, also came a very minimal amount of power. Nunez had just one home run and just five other extra-base hits during the season. In 2024 he didn’t homer at all. Listed at 5′ 10″ and 145 lbs. there is probably some room for him to add some weight and get stronger over the next few years. He’s got good bat speed and while he hasn’t hit for much power, he does have the ability to hit the ball harder than you may expect. While I don’t have full bridge and instructional league data, I do have some and saw him top out at 106 MPH EV. Not likely to ever be a power hitter, there is probably more power for him to grow into and find over the next few years.

He’s an above-average runner and that speed also helps him in center. He can handle the position well and takes good routes to the ball. Nunez, despite his size, also has a strong arm. Between his time in the Dominican Summer League and the Australian Winter League he racked up nine outfield assists in just 84 games.

The bat for Pablo Nunez is going to be very interesting to watch as he transitions to the US and has to face better pitching. He seems to have a good understanding of the strikezone and that should continue as he moves forward. The bigger questions are more about how his size may or may not limit him. He’s likely going to have to get bigger and stronger if he’s going to reach the big leagues even with a quick bat and good plate discipline.

He’s never likely going to show a bunch of home run power, but if he can add more extra-base hit power that will make pitchers and defenses respect him enough it will go a long way towards his being able to pile up hits that would come as a result of all the contact he’s making because outfielders couldn’t just play five steps in and really shrink the areas they need to cover. It would also likely help him keep some walks on his resume as pitchers may be slightly more careful against him.

Still, his size is going to be a factor that leads to some questions until it doesn’t. If he gets into the 160+ lbs range it’s going to be easier to put him into the category where he doesn’t look like a guy who just isn’t going to make the profile work in the modern game where everyone throws 95+ and it’s almost impossible to be a “finesse” hitter who can just hit a ton of singles and not much else.

Nunez is still quite far from the big leagues. And he’s got some questions he’s going to have to answer – lots of them given he’s yet to play a game in America in front of paying fans. But you can also see how he could develop into an every day outfielder who can hit leadoff thanks to a whole lot of contact and the ability to get on base.

Stats

Spray Chart

Video

Interesting Stat on Pablo Nunez

All of his extra-base hits were pulled in the 2025 regular season…. except one. That was a double on a pop up to third base. But during winter ball he had five extra-base hits and not a single one of them was pulled with all four of his doubles going to left field and his triple going to center.

Second interesting stat: He was hit by nine pitches and had just six strikeouts on the year.