Plucking pitcher Quinn Priester from the Pirates at the MLB trade deadline last week appeared for the Red Sox to be a shrewd move. Priester has talent, having been a first-round pick for Pittsburgh in 2019, and is young, still only 23 years old. He has a solid minor-league record behind him, going 25-15 with a 3.41 ERA in five seasons in the Pirates system.
He has not been able to put it together on the big-league level yet, and it was clear that the Pirates had lost patience. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said he has long had an eye on Priester and was willing to part with Triple A prospect Nick Yorke. Thus, the trade to Boston, an organization badly in need of an influx of pitching.
If you were hoping for an immediate payoff from the Priester addition, though, you’ll need to cool your jets.
Priester made his debut for the Red Sox’s Triple A affiliate in Worcester on Sunday, and it went spectacularly bad: 2.1 innings, six hits, four walks, eight earned runs and two wild pitches for good measure. Priester’s WooSox ERA is currently 30.86, with a WHIP of 4.296.
Quinn Priester ‘Still Young & Projectable’
It is just one start, of course, and the Red Sox certainly have longer plans for Priester. But it is, unfortunately, part of what has been a bad run for Priester, who bounced between Pittsburgh and Triple A Indianapolis this season but spent July with the Pirates ahead of the trade deadline. In four appearances, all in relief, he went 13 innings and let up eight runs, for an ERA of 5.54.
The Red Sox clearly believe there is a quality pitcher in Priester. It just looks like it will take a lot of work to get it out.
Breslow said he likes the fact that Priester has five pitches he can throw for strikes, though he needs to hone them. The hope is that working with pitching coach Andrew Bailey will get Priester turned around and help him be part of next year’s Red Sox rotation.
“I think he’s still young and projectable,” said Breslow, via MassLive. “When you put his age relative to what the rest of our young major league team looks like, he’s still younger by oftentimes multiple years. If you threw him into our Triple A rotation, I think he’d be among the youngest, if not the youngest pitcher there.
“We firmly believe that if we get him in our infrastructure, his best years are ahead of him,” Breslow said. “And there’s a lot of potential to work with.”
Red Sox Swapped Nick Yorke
Meanwhile, Yorke has continued to hit well even in a new environment. In his first five games at Indianapolis, he is batting .333, part of what has been a resurgent season for him. Yorke is now hitting .281 with a .364 on-base percentage and a .426 slugging percentage this season.
The Red Sox ultimately moved Yorke because they weren’t sure they had a spot for him, though he has played second base and that has been a clear area of need for the team this season.
At Baseball America, Eli Ben-Porat ranked the Yorke trade among his favorites from a stats perspective, writing:
“He makes well above-average contact when he does chase, which will make him an incredibly tough out. He shows no signs of weakness against any pitch type. Some batters have a clear hole that can be exploited, Yorke appears to have very few, if any. …
“His 91.7 mph average exit velocity through Saturday’s games is roughly 3 mph average better than the major league average, and his 90th percentile exit velocity, a more stable metric, is about 1.5 mph better than the major league average. That’s borderline plus raw power from a guy who’s going to make a ton of contact.”
