3 spring training Pittsburgh Pirates Statcast standouts ahead of Opening Day

1. Nick Yorke

Another player the Pirates acquired via trade last season was Nick Yorke. The infielder made his MLB debut late last season, and while he only had six hits in a small 42-plate-appearance sample size, two of his hits left the park. Beyond that, 2024 was an overall very promising season for Yorke, as he had the best showing of his career at Triple-A.

Yorke turned in a .333/.420/.498 triple-slash, with a .409 wOBA and 143 wRC+ in 344 plate appearances for the Pirates’ and Boston Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliates. He only hit eight home runs, but racked up an impressive 25 doubles with a .164 ISO. Yorke walked at a healthy 12.2% rate and paired that with a sub-20% K% at 18.9%. Overall, he was one of the best batters at the Triple-A level, ranking top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage, wOBA, and wRC+ among hitters at his level with at least 300 plate appearances.

But Yorke’s spring training performance hasn’t been anything to write home about. He has just seven hits in 42 plate appearances, with only two doubles. Yorke has a half-dozen walks, but has also struck out 10 times. Thankfully, the numbers under the hood are promising. Yorke has the best exit velocity of any Pirates batter with at least 30 PAs at 95.4 MPH, while his 24.7% whiff rate is about average. He’s yet to barrel up a ball in the small sample size, but hitting the ball as hard as he has consistently is nice to see.

Yorke’s raw power is heavily slept on. His 91.5 MPH exit velocity at Triple-A was the tenth-best mark among his level’s fellow batters with at least 250 plate appearances. However, his 20.8% whiff rate was by far the lowest among the top 10. The next closest was Kody Clemens, who had a 22.8% whiff percentage.