Nunnally

Jon Nunnally has been around the block a few times both as a former Major League player and as a coach.

Now, the former Altoona Curve hitting coach can be found managing the West Virginia Black Bears of the MLB Draft League.

It’s a different perspective for Nunnally who is honing his managerial game after spending most of his coaching career as a hitting coach, which included nearly two years as the hitting coach of the Cleveland Indians from December 2009 to June 2011.

That experience is something Nunnally feels has helped prepare him for his first foray into the managerial realm.

“I was underneath a lot of good managers playing and also being a hitting coach with a lot of young, talented managers,” Nunnally said. “When I first came up, I had Bob Boone. He was my first Major League manager and I had guys like Dave Keller in the minor leagues. I just learned a lot from a lot of those guys. And then I had some other young men like (former Curve manager) Michael Ryan and Brian Esposito that I was around and worked underneath as a hitting coach, that I learned a lot from.”

Nunnally served as the hitting coach in Altoona in 2019 as well as 2022 and 2023 before the organization let him go in the offseason.

He spent the 2024 season outside of baseball before the opportunity with the Black Bears came up in the offseason after speaking with Quinton McCracken, the manager for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

“I was talking to Quinton McCracken and he asked me if I wanted to coach,” Nunnally said. “I don’t know if they got a manager or hitting coach or whatever. I said, whatever they got, man, I’ll do. And he reached out to MLB Draft League Executive Director Sean Campbell, and Sean ended up making some calls to some different people that used to be with me in the Pirates organization, like Kyle Stark and a lot of different guys like that that I worked underneath before and even Neil Huntington reached out to them.”

It’s been a match made in heaven for Nunnally and West Virginia.

“Being my first year just managing a full season, it’s been great,” Nunnally said. “I like to work, like being with players every single day. Managing is a little bit different, but I still like being in there getting your hands dirty, sometimes, doing some things.”

Managing players who are clinging to their professional dreams and aspirations is different than working with players like Oneil Cruz or Ke’Bryan Hayes who were destined for the Majors.

“My experiences have helped me out a lot because I have my failures and I have my successes,” Nunnally said. “That helps a lot when you’re dealing with young players, because some of them have gone through some failure, they’ve gone through some success, and then they failed, but then sometimes they don’t know how to get to that next level or the next jump, and then just comes down to how they prepare, their preparation, and how they start to learn how to think, structuring that Rolodex of thoughts.”

Nunnally is enjoying his time molding the next generation of players as they look to get drafted or signed by a Major League organization. He’s content for now, but it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be willing to get back to the regular Minor Leagues or even Major League Baseball for the right opportunity.

“I still love being on the field, doing things with players every single day, but if some type of opportunity comes up where I can manage somewhere, I would love to do it,” Nunnally said. “I would take it on but if something came up where I had to go back and get into the groundwork and every single day in the Minor Leagues doing something with some players you know that and the right spots. I would take that on full throttle and do it I need to do.”