Minnesota Twins: Molitor Wrong About Nunez
With recent comments made by Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor regarding Eduardo Nunez’ status as an everyday player, one can’t help but think, “What is Molitor thinking?”
Recently, Molitor said he was not quite ready to give the 28-year old the title of everyday player due to his long history as a utility player.
Molitor’s rather somber feeling on the idea of Nunez as a starter was that speculating on someone’s ability to play every day after a few strong months may be a bit too soon.
Look, it’s been a rough few months for the fans and players of the Minnesota Twins but one of the few bright spots for the club has been Nunez’ play, which may just get him a ticket to San Diego for this summer’s All-Star Game.
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This may all be a strategy by Molitor to continue to get the most out of Nunez and motivate him to prove he is worth starting every day but I also feel it’s a rather risky one too.
Nunez is hitting .335 with seven home runs (including his clutch, game-tying bomb in the eighth inning on Sunday), 22 runs batted in, 12 stolen bases and 27 runs scored through 47 games. He has proven time and time again how hard working of a player he is and his versatility has been huge for a team full of injuries.
The fear is that Molitor’s insistence that Nunez has not yet earned a starting role will take a mental toll on Nunez. He’ll begin to push and eventually run out of gas once July hits.
Now by that point in time, the team may not be playing for anything but Nunez sure will as he will attempt to take over a starting spot on the left side of the infield.
I personally would like to see him take over as the Minnesota Twins’ everyday shortstop once Trevor Plouffe is fully healthy or traded, which would allow Miguel Sano to take over at third.
As much as I like Eduardo Escobar, it’s been a disappointing and injury-plagued season as he has hit just .248 with nine RBI’s and seven runs.
It’s been a great start for Nunez and Molitor has said he’s willing to ride this out. That may seem like a vote of confidence to some but to me I take that as, “keep this up or else” type of mentality, which is unfair considering under-performing stars like Brian Dozier and Ricky Nolasco have not yet been given much in terms of ultimatums from the Twins’ management or front office.
I will admit, I may be reading too much into Molitor’s recent less-than-enthusiastic comments on Nunez but in a season where practically nothing has gone right, why not give Nunez the appreciation he deserves and let him know he will be an everyday player?
There’s no true immediate future at the shortstop position despite the minor league success of Jorge Polanco, so the last thing the team would want to do is turn Nunez into a disgruntled employee.
If I’m the Minnesota Twins and Molitor, I’d make sure Nunez is as happy as the best player on a 16-40 can be instead of being non-committal and passive.