Many of us did not have “aura farming” in our personal dictionary until Nasim Nuñez said those words in a postgame interview. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines aura farming as an act of doing something to look cool, impressive, stylish, etc., especially—and importantly—without trying too hard.

The whole aura farming craze came into our Nationals’ lexicon on May 16 after a game in Baltimore that the Nats literally stole. Nuñez only reached base safely once in the game but somehow scored three runs — and yet his biggest play was a hustle single in the 9th inning that gave an opportunity for Jose Tena to score the winning run for the Washington Nationals that you will see in the video below:

Since his first game as a Rule-5 signing, Nuñez has been bringing the energy. In this particular game in Baltimore, he had a stolen base earlier in the game and kept going to third base as the ball got away from Baltimore’s catcher who just jogged after it — and Nuñez took advantage, taking third base with his top-2 percent speed. We all know speed kills — and hustle and that desire matters more.

One thing for sure, Nuñez brings that energy. An offseason workout partner with James Wood, what can you say about how that duo shaped that May 16th game. Wood had an RBI single to score Nuñez early in the game, and then added a solo home run. That’s how two-of-the-four Nats’ runs scored plus the Tena/Nuñez play, and the other run was scored on a Nathaniel Lowe solo home run. The only other hit of the game was from Jacob Young, and his biggest contribution of the game was skying over the center field wall for an incredible home run robbery.

This team has a lot of quiet types, and just like the Nats’ 2019 team, you need the opposites that attract. Wood to Nuñez is a perfect example. Yin to yang. A little more swagger.

So let’s talk about yesterday. Wadlez in the comments section on TalkNats cut-and-pasted a part of a Q&A from MLB Trade Rumors:

That got me to go to work on some statistical analysis. One thing for sure, when Nuñez started a game for the Nats, the team had a winning record in 2025. That’s a fact. They were 14-10 during Nuñez’s 24 starts. How can a player who Steve Adams said, “I don’t think he’s a big leaguer unless he’s just an all-glove utility man,” be an X-factor on a poor team?

While Adams might not think highly of his stats — Nasim The Dream was a sparkplug for this 2025 Nats team. When he started, the Nats were 14-10. Without him, they were 52-86. Small sample size? Insignificant? Or is there something to this? You want to see something even crazier? When Wood and Nuñez started together in 21 games, the Nats were 14-7 for a .667 winning percentage. How the heck?

We can quantify some of it in base running and runs scored. We can also see that Nuñez in his limited time of playing about 15 percent of the season was a +4.0 OAA on defense, and +15 over Abrams -11.0 OAA. That is significant. Extrapolate those numbers and Nuñez could have been a +25.0 for a full season and right there with Bobby Witt Jr. who had a +24.0 OAA. Yes, defense matters.

By the way, Wood’s slash was .266/.341/.544 with an .885 OPS in those games with Nuñez, meaning that Wood played better when he started games with his aura farming partner. Energy matters. We said it all season. The word “energy” became the team’s buzzword when the early July firings happened, and Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo took over. The “energy“ word was repeated over and over by team principal owner Mark Lerner, DeBartolo, and Cairo. But energy seems to be more of a personality thing when you describe a high-energy person. You’re not going to change personalities unless you change your persons, um, people. Finally, the team DFA’d Lowe in mid-August and got Dylan Crews back from the injured list. Fact is, higher energy guys can make a difference.

Early in the season, we noted several times that when Crews played that the team was playing .500 baseball. By the end of the season, the Nats were 39-46 when Crews played which is a losing record and a .459 winning percentage. But the team was 27-50 for a .351 winning percentage. So Crews and his energy always seemed to be a catalyst too. They played better with him instead of without him.

Someone who just reads box scores might say that Nuñez and Crews weren’t good offensive players. That would be fair to say. Both were above average on defense and made their pitchers look better. Both were aggressive and better than average base runners. But somewhere in the little things of baseball, they were clearly difference makers. The team just played better with them than without them.

Like Alex Call, who was traded, and will be missed, he was the same way. A ball of energy and another player like Young who would risk their body for their team. These types of players who would take on a wall are part of these high energy players. Add Daylen Lile to that list also. Remember him in that Fort Myers game in Spring Training when he went up and over that wall? When President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, assembles his roster, you hope he looks at high energy players.

Manager Blake Butera has already said he expects his players to run a Hard-90. In baseball jargon, that means running hard on the 90 feet to first base. That was missing too often in 2025 as the biggest culprit happened to be Wood. But he was not the only one to jog out those 90 feet. Energy and effort start right there on how you run out of the batter’s box — even on routine ground balls. If Nuñez wasn’t hustling on May 16, the Nats lose that game.