Craig Breslow Explains Why Red Sox Chose To Trade Top Prospect

The Red Sox liked what they saw from Nick Yorke, but they knew his path to Boston was not advantageous.

The organization saw enough potential in Yorke to select him with the 17th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. The 22-year-old showed promise as he worked his way through the Red Sox system, but on Monday, the club elected to trade Yorke to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for pitching prospect Quinn Priester.

As chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained to the media after the deal was finalized, the 1-for-1 swap had more to do with Boston’s intrigue in Priester and less with any reservations toward Yorke.

“In Quinn, we see a young starting pitcher with a ton of potential,” Breslow told reporters, per MLB.com. “He throws strikes and misses and keeps the ball on the ground, which is a good place to start when seeking rotation pieces. It hurts to give up a player as talented as Nick, but we saw upper-level middle infielders as an area where we have a lot of good players.”

A logjam at his position certainly didn’t help Yorke’s prospects of breaking into the big leagues with the Red Sox. Boston obviously is high on both Ceddanne Rafaela and Vaughn Grissom and three of its top seven prospects — Marcelo Mayer, Yoeilin Cespedes, Nazzan Zanetello — are middle infielders as well. Yorke now has a much better opportunity to prove himself in Pittsburgh.

Priester, meanwhile, has a chance to thrive in Boston. The Red Sox have a solid track record of developing young pitchers, and the 23-year-old could become one of the latest examples once he starts working with Andrew Bailey and company.