Nick Yorke

Yorke's 2021 season was a statistical tour de force, especially when factoring his age relative to the levels he was playing at. However, his 2022 season was a massive departure, and while some of that can be attributed to injuries (turf toe, back stiffness, wrist soreness), this offseason is an opportunity for the skeptics and non-believers to move off the bat-first infielder. Yorke is a tinkerer at the plate, but he never really had a stretch in 2022 that compared to his 2021 exploits. The 20-year-old slashed .231/.303/.365 with 11 home runs and a 25.2 K% in 80 games at High-A. He was better in essentially every offensive metric during his 21-game run at that level in 2021, and the contrast of his quality of contact metrics was particularly stark (45.2% flyball rate in 2021, 35.4% flyball rate in 2022). Yorke needs to hit, as he is a below-average defender most places - he could be passable at second base. He has youth on his side, and just a year ago evaluators were talking about Yorke as one of the best pure hitters in the minors, so there is an opportunity for him to have a healthy bounce-back season in 2023. However, even his staunchest supporters will probably jump ship this summer if he picks up where he left off in 2022. Read Past Outlooks