Blue Jays release Rainer Nuñez

On Wednesday, the Toronto Blue Jays surprisingly released an interesting prospect.

Coming into the 2025 season, Rainer Nuñez ranked as our 24th-best prospect thanks to a strong season in Double-A with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Less than a year later, the Blue Jays released him.

After a good start to his Triple-A tenure, the first baseman has cooled off considerably over the past few months, giving him a .252/.323/.374 slash line, with seven home runs in 300 plate appearances for a 90 wRC+. Although his stats haven’t been great, especially recently, Nuñez has always done a good job of smacking the ball, as he had an exit velocity of 119.6 mph earlier this season with the Buffalo Bisons.

Nuñez is limited to just one position, first base, and while he’s a solid defender there, the position is blocked at the big league level thanks to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Like many players with a high average exit velocity, Nuñez tends to get on top of the ball often, as he had a 57.7 groundball percentage before his release.

There are some minor league releases where you know it’s the end of their baseball career, but that’s not the case for Nuñez. He’ll turn 25 years old by the end of the year, and there’s legitimate pop from the right side of the plate with the Dominican-born first baseman.

Nuñez signed in the 2017 International Free Agency for a bonus worth $350,000 and didn’t truly break out until the 2022 season. With the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays, Nuñez slashed .299/.329/.482 with 15 home runs in 384 plate appearances, winning the Florida State League batting title. He was also productive in High-A, finishing with four home runs in 166 plate appearances for a 143 wRC+.

In the 2022-23 off-season, Nuñez participated in the Dominican Winter League, where he raised his stock even further. Overall, he slashed .263/.303/.445 with seven home runs in 145 plate appearances, leading the entire league (which big leaguers participate in) in home runs. For his efforts, Nuñez was named Rookie of the Year.

Nuñez had a good start to the 2023 season, slashing .309/.390/.446 with the Canadians, but struggled after a promotion to the Fisher Cats. In 326 plate appearances, the first baseman slashed .224/.273/.352 with 10 home runs, but his K% jumped to 27%.

Repeating the Double-A level in 2024, Nuñez got back on track, as he slashed .275/.349/.416 with 12 home runs in 433 plate appearances, with a 10.2 BB% and 20.1 K% for a 121 wRC+, hence his ranking in the pre-season update.

Nuñez has a good start to his 2025 season, slashing .282/.361/.426 with seven home runs in 244 plate appearances, but has struggled mightily since then. Still, his release comes as a surprise considering he’s struggled for just a month and a half while still having potential.