Edwin Nunez

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked St. Louis Cardinals #22 prospect in 2024
  BA Grade: 45/High
  
  Track Record: Nunez was suspended a year by MLB for an age discrepancy which pushed his official signing date back to June of 2020. Nunez signed for $525,000 and debuted in 2021 with Low-A Palm Beach. He struggled with his command mightily over his first two professional seasons and returned to Low-A Palm Beach for his third consecutive season in 2023. He took a step forward in 2023, cut his walk rate, earned a promotion to High-A Peoria and then pitched in the Arizona Fall League after the season.
  
  Scouting Report: Nunez mixes four pitches with a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup. Nunez sits 95-97 mph and touches 98, with four-seam and two-seam shapes on his fastball. His two-seam has a steeper plane and heavier armside run. Neither pitch has tremendous ride or sink, but they each feature above-average run and premium velocity. Nunez commands his fastball shapes with above-average feel, but his command for his secondaries is shaky. Nunez’s primary secondary is an upper-80s changeup with tumble and fade that generates high rates of swings and misses and lots of chase swings out of the zone. His go-to breaking ball is a slurvy upper-70s curveball with two-plane break. It drives whiffs but is rarely swung at or in the zone. Nunez has improved his control to below-average after having bottom of the scale control early in his career.
  
  The Future: Nunez is a high-powered one-inning reliever who lacks the breaking ball feel for high-leverage work.
  
  Scouting Grades Fastball: 60 | Curveball: 45 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 40
• 
  Ranked St. Louis Cardinals #18 prospect in 2022
  Track Record: MLB suspended Nunez a year due to a discrepancy with his age, but he officially signed with the Cardinals for $525,000 in June 2020. It didn’t take long for Nunez to make his minor league debut, and he spent the 2021 season at Low-A Palm Beach, showing an elite fastball but bottom-of-the-scale control, walking 56 batters in 53.2 innings while posting a 10.90 ERA.
  
  Scouting Report: Nunez stands out for a 70-grade fastball that comfortably sits in the upper 90s and touches triple-digits, with sinking life. It’s the only pitch he’s shown much feel to command, as he struggled mightily to locate his two offspeeds. His slider has slurvy shape with a high spin rate and flashes plus, but he’s unable to land it with any consistency. He rounds out his arsenal with a power changeup, but it lacks deception and he doesn’t have much feel for throwing it. The Cardinals are taking a patient approach with Nunez, understanding it’ll take time for his pitchability and command to catch up to his stuff, but opposing scouts are skeptical he’ll ever be able to throw enough strikes. Nunez has a repeatable delivery, lending some hope that he could improve his command and control.
  
  The Future: After an up-and-down debut, Nunez should find himself at High-A Peoria in 2022. He has the stuff to profile as a late-inning reliever, but he’ll have to improve his control and feel for pitching to get to that point.
  

• December, 2021 Scouting Report
  Track Record: MLB suspended Nunez a year due to a discrepancy with his age, but he officially signed with the Cardinals for $525,000 in June 2020. It didn’t take long for Nunez to make his minor league debut, and he spent the 2021 season at Low-A Palm Beach, showing an elite fastball but bottom-of-the-scale control, walking 56 batters in 53.2 innings while posting a 10.90 ERA.
  
  Scouting Report: Nunez stands out for a 70-grade fastball that comfortably sits in the upper 90s and touches triple-digits, with sinking life. It’s the only pitch he’s shown much feel to command, as he struggled mightily to locate his two offspeeds. His slider has slurvy shape with a high spin rate and flashes plus, but he’s unable to land it with any consistency. He rounds out his arsenal with a power changeup, but it lacks deception and he doesn’t have much feel for throwing it. The Cardinals are taking a patient approach with Nunez, understanding it’ll take time for his pitchability and command to catch up to his stuff, but opposing scouts are skeptical he’ll ever be able to throw enough strikes. Nunez has a repeatable delivery, lending some hope that he could improve his command and control.
  
  The Future: After an up-and-down debut, Nunez should find himself at High-A Peoria in 2022. He has the stuff to profile as a late-inning reliever, but he’ll have to improve his control and feel for pitching to get to that point.