PITTSBURGH -- Nick Yorke was one of the final cuts in Spring Training, being optioned to the Minors in the final week of the Grapefruit League season. He hit the ball hard and learned first base on the fly, but the Pirates went another direction and had him start with Triple-A Indianapolis.
It seemed likely that Yorke would be called up at some point this season. He made his Major League debut last year and is one of Pittsburgh’s top hitting prospects, now ranked as the No. 11 Pirates farmhand according to MLB Pipeline.
The wait for his second stint in the Majors is over, but the wait was longer than many would have expected. Yorke was recalled on Monday as a September callup as rosters expanded from 26 to 28 players, along with right-hander Cam Sanders.
“You know, it’s tough,” Yorke said. “Obviously you want to be here the whole year and do what you can to help the team win, but at the end of the day, it’s no one’s fault but mine. If I performed better, I would’ve been here. Just looking to take my recent success into the games here.”
Yorke has found some success of late, slashing .337/.382/.446 over 110 plate appearances in August. He’s sported a healthy .287 batting average on the year but hasn’t shown as much pop as in seasons past, homering just seven times. His .754 OPS was pretty close to league average and his 22% strikeout rate was higher than last year in the Minors (18.7%).
A strong August results-wise at least offers some optimism that Yorke could finish the year strong and make a good impression for the Major League team.
“I think you should always hit,” Yorke said. “The numbers are great in August and stuff, but you’ve got to be doing it all year around. So I‘m just looking to perform and produce here.”
Yorke admitted that it gets “frustrating” to be in the Minors all year, but a quality August is at least proof that he wasn’t just pouting with Indianapolis.
“I think he kept working,” manager Don Kelly said. “As a player looking back at my career -- I can't speak for him -- but when things don't get off to such a good start, you kind of fall into that trap and [are] trying to figure it out. He continued to work and came out of it."
Yorke was given his brother Zach’s first-base glove when he started learning the position this spring. He has his own now, a nod that this is a real avenue for playing time. He started taking game reps there again in August and started at first Tuesday when the Pirates took on the Dodgers at PNC Park. Kelly also said Yorke could get playing time at second base and the corner outfield.
“I feel great over there,” Yorke said about first base. “I feel like I didn’t have a bottom line of how good I was going to be, because I’ve never played it before. So I would just say getting comfortable with the glove and the angles of the position and just getting the reps has been the biggest part.”
The outfield was an offseason project. First base has been the in-season project. The Pirates could use a right-handed bat for either position in 2026, so this is a chance for Yorke to show he could be part of that mix. He’ll have competition from other utility players like Liover Peguero and Cam Devanney, but he can at least have his showcase at the Major League level again.
“My goal is to be a Major Leaguer, not a Triple-A baseball player,” Yorke said. “So I’m just going to do whatever I can to make it stick.”