Nunez lands with Colorado

The all-time leader in saves in York Revolution history is headed back to affiliated baseball.

Franklin Nunez, York’s closer for much of 2007 and 2008, has signed a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies. The signing was first reported by Atlantic League Baseball News. 

Nunez started the ’07 season in spring training with York and his season was marred by injuries. But when he did take the mound, the Dominican-born right-hander turned into one of the most dominant relievers in the Atlantic League.

He had a 2.76 ERA and a 51/12 strikeout-to-walk-ratio in 30 appearances. That stretch of dominance helped him earn a spot at Triple-A (Nashville) with the Milwaukee Brewers, the same club that had been scouting Nunez from the very first day of spring training in Lakeland, Fla.

Last year, Nunez started off the year with Saltillo of the Mexican League, going 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA and a 43/12 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 39 games. He joined the Revolution after the Mexican season ended and seemed to regress a bit. Nunez had a 3.98 ERA in 18 games while making many saves of the roller-coaster-ride variety.

As many of you might remember, Nunez left the Revs without much of an explanation the day the postseason started with Game 1 of the Freedom Division Series in York. His absence didn’t amount to much — York never held a lead in either game of the series, which it lost 2-0 to Somerset — but it was perplexing nonetheless. 

Nunez has saved 23 games for the Revolution and has a career 3.84 ERA with 661 strikeouts in 302 appearances in the minor leagues. He also pitched in 13 games at the major league level and all those outings came over the 2004 and 2005 seasons with Tampa Bay. He has a career 7.47 ERA in those 13 appearances in the big leagues.

The 31-year-old has been known to touch 95 mph on the radar gun and the effectiveness of his devastating slider has been the key to his success in recent years.