Colorado Rockies: Rookie Dom Nunez and his strange Rockies connection

The Colorado Rockies promoted Dom Nunez, their top catching prospect, earlier this week. In his first game, he socked his first hit, a long ball at Coors Field.

Before the game as he was preparing for the bright lights, one of his Colorado Rockies teammates told him a story about him that he himself had never heard.

From my Twitter thread

Catcher Dom Nunez was promoted to make his MLB debut today. He’s from Sacramento where he played middle infield and continued to do so into the minors. Nunez was electric as a prep playing for Elk Grove, he batted .415 in 126 games in four yearsThis got Nunez a scholarship offer to UCLA and he committed going into his Sophomore year. At that time he got an invite to EBS which is elite preps in California competing head to head in front of MLB scouts and recruiters. At the showcase was Ryan McMahon.More from Colorado Rockies NewsA Colorado Rockies ThanksgivingColorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the seasonColorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers seriesColorado Rockies: 3 things we appreciated from Tuesday in San FranciscoWhat Bill Schmidt’s comments mean for the Colorado Rockies in 2023McMahon is the same age as Nunez and comes from Anaheim. At this time McMahon also had a scholarship offer from UCLA and was highly interested. UCLA was seeking an INF because starting SS Pat Valaika was set to graduate the year Nunez and McMahon graduated high school.At the EBS showcase McMahon watched Nunez rake. It deterred McMahon from committing to UCLA. Neither ultimately went as McMahon was drafted by the Rockies in the second round in 2013 and Nunez the sixth.UCLA’s shortstop Pat Valaika meanwhile was picked up by the Rockies in the ninth round of the 2013 draft. All three of Nunez, McMahon and Valaika have played for the Rockies in 2019.Nunez didn’t know any of this until today when he was standing in front of his big league locker with McMahon telling it to him from just a few chairs away.

Baseball is a small world and Nunez went long in his debut.