The Pittsburgh Pirates today acquired infielder Nick Yorke from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester.
The 22-year-old Yorke, who is currently rated by MLB Pipeline as Boston’s No. 6 prospect, hit a combined .278 (89-for-320) with 16 doubles, 10 home runs, 46 RBI, 14 stolen bases, .363 onbase percentage, .422 slugging percentage and .785 OPS in 83 games this season between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester before being acquired today by the Pirates.
“Nick has been a strong offensive performer and versatile defender in the minor leagues,” said Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington. “We are excited to add him to our upper level position player group.”
The right-handed hitting Yorke entered the 2024 season as Boston’s No. 8 prospect according to Baseball America while also being recognized as the organization’s “Best Hitter for Average” for the third straight season by the same publication. He was also rated by Baseball America as one of Boston’s top 10 prospects in 2021 (ninth), 2022 (third) and 2023 (seventh).
Yorke, who was selected 17th overall selection by Boston in the 2020 First-Year Player Draft, was named the organization’s minor league player of the year in 2021 after leading all Red Sox farmhands in batting average (.325), OPS (.928), hits (123), total bases (195) and runs scored (76).
In 2023, Yorke started at second base in the All-Star Futures Game while spending the entire season with Double-A Portland, where he ranked among the Eastern League’s top 10 in batting average, doubles, triples, extra base hits, total bases and runs scored while posting the second-best fielding percentage (.984) in the league among second basemen.
Yorke will report to Triple-A Indianapolis.
