Red Sox, Pirates both take risks on big potential in Nick Yorke, Quinn Priester trade

Deal Details: Boston Red Sox Acquired RHP Quinn Priester From Pittsburgh Pirates For 2B/OF Nick Yorke

The Red Sox and Pirates pulled off something very rare: a one-for-one trade of young players, almost a “challenge trade,” although I don’t think that term quite applies when it comes to a position pitcher. You could look at it as a matter of comparative advantage: the Pirates have enough starting pitchers now but need bats, while the Red Sox have enough bats now and for the foreseeable future but need younger arms, and Boston has shown that it can help young pitchers get better.

Either way, it’s a fascinating deal that could certainly be a win-win situation, but one that could also easily backfire, more so than any other deal so far at this deadline.

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Nick Yorke was Boston’s first-round pick in 2020, a complete shocker who not only fell out of my top 100 that year but also sat at No. 139 on MLB Pipeline’s pre-draft list. Since then, he’s shown that he has a good reason to be selected. He’s performed well at nearly every stop in the minors, with some hiccups along the way, and is slashing .310/.408/.490 in 38 games at Triple A so far this year.

He’s limited to second base and is a 45 defender at best there, as his arm never recovered after shoulder surgery in 2019, and neither his power nor speed are average, so he absolutely needs to keep hitting for average with high contact rates to be an everyday player. I think that’s exactly what he is: a solid average regular, nothing more, nothing less.

Yorke hits the ball hard enough to keep his batting average high, but he hits the ball into the infield too often and doesn’t have enough power to put the ball in the seats more than 12-15 times a year. He could improve his defense enough to come close to average at second base, but I’d bet he’s down a run or two on defense.

I see a narrow range of outcomes here and certainty is valuable, especially for the Pirates, whose current second baseman, Nick Gonzales, has an OBP of .293 so far this year.

Quinn Priester was a first-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2019, fresh out of high school. (Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Quinn Priester is a more interesting case with a much wider range of possible outcomes. Priester was also a first-round pick back in 2019, and he had little trouble working his way up through the Pirates’ system until he reached the majors, where he’s given up far too much hard contact.

Much of it comes down to his fastballs, both of which — the four- and two-seamers — are hard-hit. While he does get groundballs, hard-hit groundballs find their way to the outfield for hits more often than softer ones.

The Pirates also demoted him to fifth-pitch status in favor of a slider that isn’t as effective. He has a great delivery that he can repeat well, and he throws strikes as a result. Although in the case of the two-seamer, that’s a lot of middle-middle strikes, which isn’t where you want to place a pitch with a sink.

The Red Sox have had tremendous success in recent years helping pitchers expand or adapt their repertoires, such as giving Tanner Houck a splitter that took him from a botched starter to at least a No. 2 prospect, and Priester is cut from the same cloth. He has nearly all the makings of an above-average starter and a delivery that should work in that role.

Boston likely brought him in with those adjustments in mind, but if they can’t figure it out or he can’t execute, they could end up with a No. 6 starter. They have so little starting pitching in their system that trading a surplus bat in Yorke, who wouldn’t have a spot to play in the majors with the Red Sox, for a project with potential like Priester makes perfect sense.

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I understand the need for numbers or to say who won a trade, and in many cases I like to say that I think a team did exceptionally well, or that the price for a veteran was higher or lower than I expected. I don’t have that kind of opinion on this trade. Both guys are solid prospects, Priester included, even though he doesn’t qualify for the prospect list simply because he’s young and unestablished. Both have appeared on my top 100 rankings at least once. I hope they both find their game in the majors and that this is a win-win, but I can see this deal being a win-win for both sides, depending on whether Boston can get more out of Priester than Pittsburgh can.

(Photo of Yorke: Rusty Jones / Four Seam Images)