Nunnally Returns to Omaha with Indy

The familiar face lurking around the Werner Park batting cage this week belongs to Indianapolis hitting coach Jon Nunnally. Longtime Omaha fans may remember him from his playing days with the O-Royals.

Nunnally, an outfielder, had two stints with the franchise. He played in Omaha in 1996-97 after spending a full season in the majors. He returned to the club in 2001-02 after time with four other organizations.

“It was a lot of fun,” he recalled this week. “You had some older guys, back then, playing on your team. We had some different guys who had a lot of experience. We had a lot of good players back then who were just jelling together. Each guy was trying to develop and get through things, but it was a lot of fun.”

Nunnally was 24 when he first arrived in Omaha in 1996. He had spent the entire previous season with Kansas City, platooning with Phil Hiatt in the outfield, even though he had never played above the High-A level. A Rule 5 draft pick from Cleveland, Nunnally finished eighth in the A.L. Rookie of the Year voting.

He was only 23 when he made his MLB debut and is one of a limited number of players to hit a home run in his first big-league at-bat, taking Melido Perez of the Yankees deep to center field in Kansas City.

Nunnally knew nothing of Perez – or any other big-leaguers, for that matter – coming in because he’d never even been close to the majors. He said Royals starter Mark Gubicza told him Perez would pitch exclusively away to him. Nunnally didn’t necessarily believe him until Perez did so four straight times.

“He went right back out there again, and I hit a homer to center field,” he said. “It’s an awesome feeling to be able to do it. You have all those fans there, but I didn’t hear a thing. I guess I was so focused and locked in to where I was that I couldn’t hear nobody. I heard nothing until I touched home plate.”

Nunnally held his own in the majors that season in 1995, finishing with 14 homers and 42 runs batted in.

“I came straight out of A ball so there was a lot of development things going on there,” he said. “But the one thing I knew I could do was hit a fastball so I really wasn’t that worried. I had a pretty good zone. The main thing was just getting to know pitchers and knowing what they were going to do.”

Nunnally came to Omaha the following year for some seasoning and to fine-tune his game. Because he had skipped so many developmental levels, the assignment didn’t bother him. He had a long-term view.

“I wasn’t discouraged because I always knew what I could do,” he said. “I had experience up there in the big leagues. I had to come down to learn the league. Once you came to Triple-A, you had a lot of older veteran dudes who were Major League guys themselves who were going through the same things.

“I just wanted to go play and win. I just loved the game.”

Nunnally batted .281 with 25 homers and 77 RBIs for Omaha in 1996, then hit another five homers for Kansas City when called up. He was in Omaha for part of the next season also before he was traded.

From 1997-2000, Nunnally played for Kansas City, Cincinnati, Boston and the New York Mets. In late 2000, he left for Japan where he played in the same outfield as Ichiro Suzuki and So Taguchi with Orix. Nunnally said they didn’t have many games together as Suzuki was focusing on coming to the U.S.

Nunnally returned to America also in 2001, rejoining the Royals organization and returning to Omaha. He played for the Golden Spikes and O-Royals for parts of two seasons before moving on to Memphis.

After finishing his playing career, Nunnally moved into coaching. He’d been with three other MLB organizations prior to joining Pittsburgh in 2019. This is his first season coaching with Indianapolis.

Nunnally realized as a player that he had a knack for working with others. And he’s found that the ups and downs he experienced during his playing days have prepared him well for his current baseball role.

“It’s helped me out a lot being able to talk to guys and have relationships,” he said. “I’m always talking to the player. I want to know what the player wants. What is he trying to do? I like to understand their mind first, and then going on to whatever we’re seeing and plan an approach. I like to make sure those guys can be external thinkers not internal thinkers. Then you go and do your work, and it becomes a little more simple. … I always enjoyed helping other guys do what they do. That made it fun for me.”