After Arizona detour, Yorke got right back in the swing

At the end of the worst season of his life, Nick Yorke could have retreated. After a succession of injuries left him unable to maintain a consistent swing and offensive approach at High A Greenville in 2022, he could have flushed the season, headed home to California, and gone into hibernation while looking to erase all records of his disappointing sequel to a dazzling professional debut in 2021.

But that wasn’t the course Yorke chose. When the Red Sox approached him about playing in the Arizona Fall League, he didn’t hesitate.

“I just love playing baseball,” said Yorke. “Honestly, whether I’m playing good or playing bad, I have a good time on the field with my friends. Any opportunity I get, I’m going to play.

“As soon as they offered it up, absolutely. What am I going to go do at home? Just work out for the next year? Why not just play?”

Yorke, the Red Sox’ firstround pick in 2020, was coming off a Greenville campaign in which he’d hit .232/.303/.365 with a 25.2 percent strikeout rate, a far cry from the .325/ .412/.516 with a 15.6 percent strikeout rate he’d posted at Single A Salem and Greenville in 2021.

Yorke’s 2022 performance had been hampered by injuries — back stiffness, sore wrist, turf toe — that led to mechanical issues in his swing. With his swing out of whack, the plate discipline that had been a central part of his 2021 campaign unraveled.

So Yorke reported to Arizona to work with Red Sox minor league hitting coordinator Lance Zawadzki and Triple A hitting coach Mike Montville, who also was serving as hitting coach for the Scottsdale Scorpions.

“I was just getting a little tight in my shoulders, closing myself off, and then kind of unraveling, rather than having my line, having my direction going up the middle,” said Yorke. “We kind of hit the drawing board with that and worked on some things.”

Yorke worked with Zawadzki and Montville to find the move that would allow him to keep a clean line with his hands to the ball.

In drill work, Yorke started raising his hands prior to the pitch, then lowering them to a natural position by the letters, a timing mechanism similar to the one used by Mookie Betts.

He implemented the swing change and hit .342/.424/.526 for Scottsdale.

Buoyed by those results, he continued his swing work with a week at Driveline’s facility near Seattle just prior to reporting to spring training.

“In terms of exit velo numbers in 2022, I was hitting my hardest balls on the ground,” said Yorke. “That was kind of my thing going into Driveline. Obviously, everyone’s going to hit ground balls, everybody’s going to hit fly balls. But you want your hardest ones to be with good direction, good spin, good launch angle.”

Yorke has gone back to looking like himself. While he started slowly in spring training while working through back stiffness, by the end his approach appeared locked in, convincing the Red Sox to assign him to Double A Portland.

There, Yorke is off to an excellent start, hitting .271/.407/ .529 with a 16.3 percent walk rate and 22.1 percent strikeout rate. Though he’s among the youngest players in the Eastern League, he ranks seventh in onbase percentage and slugging.

Beyond those numbers, there are markers of substantial improvement. His chase rate is down from roughly 25 to 20 percent. His hard-hit rate has more than doubled to roughly one of every nine plate appearances (above major league average). His top-end exit velocities are up, with more of his hardhit balls getting pulled to left field. He’s swinging at better pitches and making better, more frequent contact.

“To see that this early, we’re extremely happy about that because that’s probably one of the biggest jumps you make, High A to Double A,” said Zawadzki. “Being able to rebound, being able to make that jump and be doing what he’s doing, that’s great. He has a chance to be a complete hitter.

“There’s huge upside on the power. Obviously, it’s still coming. This guy has had a pure ability to hit since we drafted him. I think that was one of the most appealing things when we did get him. So you put that into the perspective of, if you’re not chasing, you have that power ability, and then if you do get behind in the count or when a situation calls for it, you’re able to go to right field.”

Evaluators who have seen Yorke see a promising bat-first second baseman who once again appears on a big league trajectory.

While he has, in the eyes of the industry, regained the topprospect status he had after 2021 (Baseball America had him 31st entering 2022), Yorke is more focused on what he is doing than how it’s perceived.

“Obviously, I want to be great,” he said. “But for someone to tell me what I’m ranked, good for him. I’m going to go try to hit Jacob deGrom. I’m not worried about what number prospect I am.

“At the end the day, nobody cares. I’m trying to get to the big leagues. I’m extremely confident with where I am.”