3 prospects the Pirates should have opened the year with on their roster

1. Nick Yorke

Nick Yorke was another deadline pickup by the Pirates last year. After his performance at Triple-A in 2024 (featuring his MLB debut), Yorke looked like he had an inside track at a potential Major League roster spot at the end of last year. Ultimately, he was sent back to Indianapolis to open 2025, but he still deserves a Major League roster spot right now.

Yorke may have opened 2024 at Double-A with middling numbers, but he took off once he got to Triple-A in the Boston Red Sox’s system. Between their Triple-A team and the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate, Yorke turned in a .333/.420/.498 triple-slash. He drew a healthy amount of walks with a 12.2% BB% and only struck out in 18.9% of his plate appearances. Yorke finished out his time at Triple-A last season with a .409 wOBA and 143 wRC+.

Yorke’s peripherals only made his Triple-A performance more impressive. His 91.7 MPH exit velocity was the tenth-best among fellow Triple-A batters with at least 250 plate appearances. However, his whiff rate of 20.8% was by far the best among the top 10 hitters in exit velocity. The next closest, Kody Clemens, sat at 22.8%. Yorke’s .369 xwOBA was also the 11th-best mark.

Yorke made his Major League debut last September, and only had eight hits in 42 plate appearances. Still, there were plenty of positives to draw from his small sample size. Yorke hit two home runs, and his average exit velocity was a well above-average 89.7 MPH mark. His whiff rate was above 30%, but his chase rate was only 24.4%. He displayed great speed on the basepaths and was in the 90th percentile of sprint speed at 28.9 feet/second. His xwOBACON (expected weighted on-base average on contact) was over .500. To show how good that is, only five qualified hitters last season had a xwOBACON over .500. That elusive list includes both MVP winners, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, the runner-up in AL MVP voting in Juan Soto, DH slugger Brent Rooker and Marcell Ozuna. All hit at least 39 home runs last season.

Of course, it was a small sample size, and Yorke does not project to be a 40 home run hitter. However, promising peripherals, both at Triple-A and in his first taste of big-league action, are intriguing signs nonetheless. If Nick Gonzales is going to be out an extended period of time, well past the original 10-day IL stint, Yorke should be the replacement, not some mix of Jared Triolo/Adam Frazier/Enmanuel Valdez. In fact, the Pirates would have likely been better off with Yorke in a 2B/OF role to start the year than they were after adding Frazier and/or Tommy Pham.