The Red Sox and Pirates swapped former first-round picks on Monday afternoon, with the Red Sox trading infield prospect Nick Yorke to Pittsburgh in exchange for right-hander Quinn Priester.
The club officially announced the deal Monday afternoon, saying Priester will be optioned to Triple-A Worcester.
A 23-year-old righty, Priester was the No. 18 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft and ranked as one of Pittsburgh’s top pitching prospects throughout his minor league career. The 6-foot-3 Priester ranked as one of Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects in both 2021 and 2022 and remained the organization’s No. 5 prospect in 2023 prior to making his MLB debut that season.
Since reaching the big leagues Priester has yet to pop, posting a 6.46 ERA over 94.2 innings in 20 career MLB appearances, but he has shown the ability to avoid hard contact and draw ground balls with his sinker. He also won’t hit free agency until after the 2029 season, meaning the Red Sox will have plenty of time to get him in their new pitching infrastructure and try to unlock the potential that once made him among the most highly regarded young arms in the sport.
The move also helps clear the organization’s middle infield logjam in the upper minors.
Since the Red Sox drafted Yorke at No. 17 overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, the 22-year-old second baseman has established himself as a promising young talent who had nonetheless found his path to the majors blocked. Boston already has shortstop Trevor Story signed for another three years, acquired 23-year-old second baseman Vaughn Grissom from Atlanta this past offseason in exchange for Chris Sale, and has 21-year-old shortstop prospect Marcelo Mayer — currently a consensus top 20 prospect in baseball — waiting in the wings.
That doesn’t even include other infield prospects like Enmanuel Valdez, Chase Meidroth, Matthew Lugo and Kristian Campbell, all of whom have been jockeying for playing time in Portland and Worcester over the past few months.
Yorke will now have a much clearer path to reaching the big leagues, and his performance would justify a call-up at some point in the near future. Since his promotion to Triple-A on June 5 Yorke is batting .310 with six home runs, 19 RBI and an .898 OPS in 38 games.
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