Ryne Nelson was no stranger to hitting a baseball entering his first career plate appearance against the Chicago Cubs last season. But the RBI-single had a lot more layers to it, and surprisingly less emotion.
“I remember being less nervous than I would have thought I would have been,” Nelson said Monday on Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo. “I felt very calm, nothing to lose. I’m a pitcher up there trying to get a hit.”
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The Diamondbacks trailed the Cubs 6-2 entering the bottom of the eighth inning on March 30, the 2025 season’s first series finale. Before Nelson was needed off the bench — as the D-backs had exhausted position players — a series of walk, walk, flyout, double, home run, single and double had lifted Arizona to a 7-6 lead.
“(Josh) Naylor hit a big double and then he stole third (base) for me,” Nelson recalled. “Especially in that situation, I know I’m a pitcher, but you go from first and second to second and third, less than two outs.
“He’s still (on) third on a 1-1 count and (reliever Eli Morgan) threw me a slider, so I was never swinging once I saw him take off to steal third.”
Nelson, who batted .170 in 176 at-bats collegiately while at Oregon, said he was only ever looking for a fastball to crack and fortunately got one from the righty Morgan. He drove the pitch, which was thrown just away from him, up the middle past second base.
The D-backs won 10-6 to salvage a series tie in front of a raucous home crowd at Chase Field.
RYNE NELSON IS BRINGING BACK PITCHERS WHO HIT!!! pic.twitter.com/gsOGsV8pGs
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) March 30, 2025
Unlike his 30 knocks as a Duck, Nelson made sure he got the ball and the cleats he wore that day to keep as mementos of his first career MLB hit.
The bat, however, was more difficult to get his hands on for good.
Nelson said he selected a bat from “a box of random ones in the (batting) cage” and it happened to be outfielder Alek Thomas’ practice bat.
“It took him a couple days to give it to me because it was his cage bat,” Nelson said. “So then a couple games later it’s like sitting in front of my locker. I’m like, ‘Oh, thanks, man.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I broke it, so you can have it now.'”
With the National League abandoning the universal designated hitter rule in 2022, Nelson’s chances for more offensive glory will be rare. He said he wasn’t satisfied with his college output, so his MLB 1 for 1 stat line may not be the final tally for the 28-year-old (if he has his way and the situation presents itself).
What is Ryne Nelson working on in spring training?
He’s tossed outings of two and 2.2 innings thus far into Cactus League play, with the first against the Seattle Mariners being the better with no earned runs allowed and three strikeouts. Though he gave up two runs last Thursday to the Cubs, Nelson’s average fastball was at 96.3 mph, up 0.6 mph from 95.7 last season.
He said he’s been primarily working on his breaking pitches, trying to make them “a little bit more usable.” Nelson used his four-seam fastball 62% of the time in 2025 compared to 11% with his curveball, according to Baseball Savant.
Nelson is slated to make his third start of spring training for the Diamondbacks on Wednesday against the Athletics at Salt River Fields.
Due to teamwide pitching injuries last season, Nelson was asked to be a hybrid starter/reliever (23 starts and 10 relief appearances) but his role is more clearly defined as a starter in 2026. That’s the way he wants it.
“I did a lot of relieving in college (43 appearances across three seasons) and I actually really enjoyed it. I loved being a closer and stuff, but the more I got used to being a starter and the routines and everything, I really fell in love with it,” Nelson said.
Because Nelson was on a limited pitch count for most of 2025, as he hadn’t been stretched out like a starter early on, he said his seven innings of one-run ball on July 5 against the Kansas City Royals nearly got “a little hairy.”
“I did (manager Torey Lovullo) a favor, I gave up a hit, made sure that he didn’t have to make any hard decision (to keep me in the game),” Nelson said.
In his third full season of getting starts on the mound, Nelson posted career-bests in ERA (3.39), bWAR (3.5) and innings pitched (154).
Is getting the Opening Day nod important?
With Merrill Kelly progressing from intercostal nerve irritation in his lower back, Lovullo said Arizona’s Opening Day starting pitcher is up for grabs.
Nelson said he would “love the opportunity” and envisions getting the honor one day, but that stressing over it isn’t “really my energy.”
“I have a start here (soon), so that’s where my head’s at,” Nelson said.
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