Inside The Red Sox

Red Sox's Nick Yorke Blasts Grand Slam Amid Fantastic Rebound Season With AFL

Yorke is having a much-needed rebound after a tough season

Scott Neville

Red Sox's Nick Yorke Blasts Grand Slam Amid Fantastic Rebound Season With AFL
Red Sox's Nick Yorke Blasts Grand Slam Amid Fantastic Rebound Season With AFL /
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Boston Red Sox second base prospect Nick Yorke entered 2022 as one of the most-hyped players in the organization after he tore the cover off the ball at both levels he played at on his way to becoming the organization's Offensive Player of the Year.

Unfortunately, his latest season can be summed up by injuries and an abysmal strikeout-to-walk ratio that derailed his offensive production.

The good news? A fresh slate against some of the top prospects in the game appears to be doing wonders for the 20-year-old middle infielder. 

Yorke, the No. 4 prospect in the organization according to MLB Pipeline, absolutely obliterated a grand slam Monday to put an exclamation point on a fantastic run in the Arizona Fall League. 

Yorke is hitting .328 with seven doubles, the aforementioned lone home run, 15 RBIs, an even 12-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .926 OPS in 16 games for the Scottsdale Scorpions. 

His impressive AFL debut comes on the heels of a 2022 regular season in which he hit just .231 with 22 extra-base hits including 11 home runs, 45 RBIs a disappointing 94-to-33 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a .668 OPS in 80 games for the High-A Greenville Drive.

Fortunately, between his 2021 season and his AFL performance, Yorke has shown a lot more high-end play than poor performance since being drafted in the first round of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft.

There's plenty of reason to believe his elite play thus far is indicative of who he truly is despite the overall down year.

More MLB: Red Sox Prospect Deemed 'Best International Prospect Since Rafael Devers'

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Scott Neville
SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer.  His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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