Orioles right-hander Juan Nuñez missed most of the year with shoulder injury
The Padres continue to shop in the Rule 5 draft as contenders, too.
They plucked right-hander Juan Nuñez out of the Baltimore Orioles system in Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft and say they will give him a chance to compete for a starting spot in spring training.
“I think he’ll get an opportunity to stretch out and start and see what that looks like,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said. “… We didn’t take him saying, ‘All right, we’re going to flip him to the ‘pen and he’s going to be a one-inning guy.’ We took him just looking at a guy that is talented and has performed. We think he has pitches and actions and delivery to start. So we’ll probably give him an opportunity to do that in spring training, and then be able to go either direction depending on how he’s showing early in camp.”
The 24-year-old Nuñez struck out 38 in 29⅓ innings (2.45 ERA) at high Single-A Aberdeen, pairing a .212 opponent average with a 1.09 WHIP.
He did not pitch after mid-May due to a shoulder injury, but the Padres, according to a team scout, like the combination of upside, stuff and feel.
“It sounds like he’s back throwing, having a normal offseason,” Preller said Wednesday. “… He says he’s ready to go. He’s been throwing, started to throw bullpens, so I think all those are good signs.”
Nuñez sits 92-98 mph with a slider, a cutter and a changeup.
He’s been a starting pitcher to date, but has not advanced past high A. Nuñez has averaged 11.7 strikeouts and 3.07 walks per nine innings with a 3.32 ERA (203⅔ IP) in the low minors.
The selection of Nuñez makes it the third year in a row the Padres have taken a player in the Rule 5 draft.
They swiped reliever Jose Lopez from the Rays in 2022, but he did not make it out of spring training with the team.
Last year, the Padres took reliever Stephen Kolek from the Mariners and kept him on the active roster until he hit the injured list with forearm trouble after the Padres’ deadline moves to add Tanner Scott, Jason Adam and Bryan Hoeing to the bullpen.
Kolek did not pitch again last season but is expected to be a contributor in ’25.
Teams must pay $100,000 to select a player in the big-league phase of the Rule 5 draft. They must keep the player on the active roster the entire season, or the player can be returned to the original team for half of that Rule 5 fee.
The Padres were heavily active in the Rule 5 draft early in Preller’s tenure, coming away with three players in 2017 (Miguel Díaz, Luis Torrens and Allen Cordoba) and four players in 2016 (Luis Perdomo, Jabari Blash, Josh Martín and Blake Smith).
They did not pick again until selecting Lopez in 2022.
Nuñez is ranked No. 8 in Baltimore’s system by MLB.com and No. 20 by Baseball America.
The 5-foot-11 Venezuelan originally signed with the Twins in November 2019 for $25,000 and was traded to Baltimore in 2022 for reliever Jorge Lopez.
The Padres also added right-hander Eiker Huizi (Tigers High-A), outfielder Jake Snider (Rockies High-A) and catcher Andy Thomas (Giants Double-A) in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft and lost Double-A reliever C.J. Widger to the Giants organization.
