Predicting how big a role these three Pittsburgh Pirates rookies will play in 2025

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a young and exciting core that could help form a contender in 2025. Over the last few seasons, they've brought up many of their top prospects, and some have made a real impact at the MLB level. Hopefully, the new coaching hires can help more players successfully take that step from Triple-A to the bigs.

And yes, the Pirates have plenty more rookies on the way.

Last year, the Pirates had a half-dozen players make their MLB debuts. Some of those players will be back next year to try to provide a spark to a team that wants to make it back to Buctober baseball. So, what sort of role could some of the Pirates' 2025 rookies play next season?

3 Pirates rookies who could see larger roles in 2025

Nick Yorke

The Pirates acquired multiple MLB-ready prospects at the 2024 trade deadline, including infield prospect Nick Yorke from the Boston Red Sox. Yorke didn't get off to a great start to the 2024 season at Double-A, but hit very well at Triple-A for both the Sox and Pirates' affiliates. He combined to bat .333/.420/.498 with a .409 wOBA and 143 wRC+ across 344 plate appearances.

Good peripherals supported Yorke's strong bottom line. The infielder walked in 12.2% of his plate appearances, with a K% of only 18.9%. His swing-and-miss rate was just 20.8%. Yorke had no trouble making hard contact either, with a 91.5 MPH exit velocity. His .361 xwOBA was the 11th-best among minor-leaguers at A-Ball or Triple-A with at least 250 plate appearances (note that A-Ball and Triple-A parks are the only minor league parks with public Statcast data available).

Yorke was then promoted to the major leagues in September. He appeared in 11 games and only had 46 plate appearances, but he went yard twice and continued to show off above-average raw power. His exit velocity clocked in at 89.7 MPH, while his barrel rate was 15.4%. His xwOBA in that small sample size was .377. While Yorke swung outside the zone just 24.4% of the time, his whiff rate was just above 30% at 31.7%.

Yorke currently ranks as one of the Pirates' best prospects. Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and FanGraphs each rank him as a top-10 prospect in the Pirates' system. Baseball America considers him to be the Pirates' best prospect when it comes to hitting for average. Considering how hard he can hit the ball, there's a chance for average or better power to manifest as well. Yorke is also an asset on the basepaths, and was in the 90th percentile of sprint speed during his first cup of coffee in the bigs this year at 28.9 feet per second.

So where does that leave Yorke? Although he solely played second base from 2021 to 2023, he started to see time all around the field in 2024. The former first-rounder started at least one game at second and third base, along with shortstop and both outfield corners between the minor leagues and MLB. He has a chance to be the Pirates' next Josh Harrison or Adam Frazier but with the potential to hit for more power. He's hit double-digit home runs every year in the minor leagues, including seasons where he played less than 100 games.