Debut of Yorke, 18, ‘highlight of the day’
Sox top draft pick shows very early promise
It was as close to a David vs. Goliath matchup as it gets in baseball, and David won.
Braves lefty A. J. Minter was one of the best relievers in the game last year, posting an 0.83 ERA in 23 appearances for the Braves during the regular season. He was equally as impressive in the postseason, striking out seven Dodgers in a three-inning outing during the National League Championship Series.
Standing 60 feet, 6 inches away on Monday was 18-yearold Nick Yorke, who was finishing his high school baseball career less than 12 months ago. Yorke was taking his first-ever at-bat in a Red Sox uniform.
Down to two strikes, big league hitters batted just .151
(8-for-53) off Minter last year.
Down to two strikes on Monday, the teenage prospect for the Red Sox sat back on a sharp breaking ball falling toward his ankles and
stroked it into right-center for a single.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself,” Yorke said after the Sox’ 5-3 loss to the Braves at JetBlue Park. “I believe I can hit off any pitcher there is.”
Yorke was the Sox’ first draft choice last June, when they went off the board to select the second baseman from Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., 17th overall. He wasn’t supposed to be drafted anywhere near the first round, according to industry experts. And chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom later admitted that the selection of Yorke played a large role in the Sox’ farm system still being ranked in the 20s by most major publications this winter
ut Yorke has seemed like anything but a scared kid since he was chosen. He was added to the alternate site in Pawtucket for the final few weeks last year, when he got a chance to play with some of the Sox’ best prospects and others who have tasted the big leagues or high levels of the minors.
To be in big league camp less than a year after getting drafted is “pretty nuts,” he said. “It’s exciting. It’s definitely very exciting. But any opportunity that they give me to touch a baseball field, I’m going to try to run away with it. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and just trying to get better.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t give Yorke much of a pep talk.
Yorke said Cora told him to “just get prepared, go on like it’s another day getting ready for another game,” he said. “The coaches have done a really good job preparing us, giving us live at-bats. It felt good. I felt really prepared going into it.”
Yorke also drew a ninth-inning walk off Braves prospect Jasseel De La Cruz, a 23-year-old right-hander who has yet to see big league action.
“I was thinking of where I was when I was 18, probably in Miami, going to Coconut Grove or something like that, hanging out,” Cora
said. “It was good, it was cool, that was tremendous. He’s here to learn. He’s here to be around big leaguers and learn how to act in the clubhouse, how to be a professional. You can see. He controls the strike zone, controls his at-bats and started a routine double play that we didn’t turn but that was the highlight of the day, having that kid play.
“It’s funny, because I told him before the game, ‘ hey, you’re playing second base.’ He’s like, ‘OK,
cool.’ I asked him, ‘ are you nervous?’ He was like, ‘nope.’ I’m like, ‘OK, good for you.’ Probably I was more nervous for him. That’s a good sign.”
Yorke said he wasn’t nervous at all.
“It’s fun,” he said. “It is. Baseball’s fun in my opinion. Every time you touch the field or get the opportunity to go out and play, it’s fun. So it’s what I love to do, and being able to do it as a career at 18, I mean, I’m not going to complain.”