Playing Winter Ball in Puerto Rico Helped Joe Nahas Refine Skills, Rediscover Love for Game

Cubs pitching prospect Joe Nahas was born in Pottsville, PA, a small city situated about two hours northwest of Philadelphia and less than an hour west of Jim Thorpe. Yes, that’s a real town. It was founded in 1818 as Mauch Chunk, then changed its name at some point to attract more tourists. Nahas probably won’t draw comparisons to the man some call the greatest athlete of all time, but he excelled in football and baseball for Marian Catholic High School in nearby Tamaqua despite being somewhat undersized at around 6 feet and 160-170 pounds depending on which years-old scouting profile you check.

His work on the mound earned him an offer from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he pitched for one season. Had he remained one more year, he’d have been able to celebrate the 16-seeded UMBC Retrievers’ historic win over No. 1 Virginia in the NCAA tournament. Instead, he spent his sophomore year going the juco route with the Chesapeake College Skipjacks. That led him a little further away to Georgia Southern for his junior year.

Though the numbers didn’t necessarily jump off the box score, the Cubs saw enough to sign Nahas as an undrafted free agent in 2019. After very limited action that summer in rookie ball and the Arizona Complex League, he missed what should have been his first season of pro ball due to the pandemic. Nahas has spent the last three seasons between multiple levels of the system, mostly at High-A and Double-A, and has appeared in 127 games with a 4.42 ERA and 316 strikeouts in 336 total innings.

Nahas has really improved his strikeout numbers during that time, elevating a K/9 mark that was as low as 5.52 in 2021 to a very respectable 9.78 this past season. He has experienced some bad luck, with a FIP that is 55 points lower than his ERA and a 3.29 xFIP that says his results should be much better. Luck isn’t everything in baseball, but it can certainly sway results one way or the other. It’s also the product of preparation meeting opportunity, and Nahas is hoping that a different method of attacking the offseason will help his talent to shine as he enters his fifth full season in the Cubs’ system.

During the 2023 offseason, Nahas got the idea that he’d like to play baseball throughout the winter in the future. Most pitchers keep consistent with some sort of throwing program, but that wasn’t enough for Nahas. He talked to the Cubs about this possibility, and they connected him with a team in Caguas, Puerto Rico this past winter. The Criollos de Caguas also rostered former Cubs Ezequiel Pagan and Luis Vázquez, so there were some familiar faces.

There are six teams in the Puerto Rican Winter League, most within half an hour of each other, so it’s similar to the Cactus League experience. This allowed Nahas to spend time with his family throughout his time there, kind of like a normal offseason but in a different place and with more live competition. Even though baseball is a huge part of his life, nothing is more important to Nahas than his family.

“It definitely made for a good balance of baseball and family,” he told Cubs Insider during a recent interview.

Participating in Puerto Rico also allowed him to work on his arsenal via game action, something few pitchers are able to do. It doesn’t matter what ways you come up with to gamify your offseason bullpen sessions, nothing compares to facing live batters.

“I was fortunate to get in games very frequently, nearly every other day,” Nahas said. “That allowed me to keep expanding what I was working on, locating my pitches to both sides of the plate. I was able to throw the cutter back door, throw the two-seam in a count I normally wouldn’t do that in, but the experimentation of that and live feedback I was able to get from quality hitters definitely improved by game tenfold.”

Playing with less pressure also helped, making the games more fun than just competing for a shot at the next level. While some might find the atmosphere of playing in a different environment daunting, Nahas had a blast.

“It was a really unique opportunity for me to continue throwing through the winter,” he said. “Every other winter, I’ve taken it off, but this was a way for me to keep fresh and help my arsenal remain sharp. This is going to allow me to be extremely prepared to take on this 2025 season.”

Competing outside of the mainland United States has its challenges, but those also can be extremely beneficial at the same time. While most of the players in the PRWL speak some level of English, Nahas said learning Spanish was very helpful for his time there. It didn’t hurt that his wife is multilingual and could help him practice his skills on that front. That sense of family and community extended beyond teammates and the loved ones who accompanied him.

“There’s a kindness and hospitableness that isn’t as present in America today but is still really present in Puerto Rico,” Nahas noted.

Along with making his family feel at home, that hospitality made Nahas more comfortable on the mound. That helped because the season being only 40 games added a must-win edge to each contest that provided a different aspect from most minor league games. Adding another six weeks of high-intent pitching could be considered risky, but Nahas made sure to focus on overall health and recovery.

Practicing yoga was an integral part of his routine and has been since he and a group of Double-A players started doing it during the 2024 season. More than just a matter of taking care of his body, the practice was part of a bigger picture of building friendships and reconnecting with the enjoyment of his sport.

“It’s just a game, and it’s really fun,” he told CI. “Playing there let me see that baseball is a game again, it’s not life or death. I’m still going to go to bed tonight with my wife and my son and wake up tomorrow morning, God willing. It’s a game with your friends on a diamond. I want to keep that feeling of ‘Hey, baseball is just fun.’ Don’t stress yourself out.”

Hoping to keep this mindset going into 2025, Nahas is ready to use the extra experience and fresh perspective to his advantage.

Listen to the full interview here.