Matt Gorski continues tear in Triple-A
Outfielder hits yet another home run for Indianapolis.
Matt Gorski is no stranger to these kinds of streaks, where he launches the ball out of the park seemingly every time he comes up to the plate.
In 2022, he hit nine home runs in a seven-game stretch for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, getting promoted to Double-A immediately after.
He’s always been someone who has flashed a lot of raw power, but swing-and-miss issues and injuries have plagued him since making it to Double-A a couple of years ago.
Gorksi restarted in Altoona last and hit 17 home runs before getting promoted to Indianapolis.
Beginning the year back at Triple-A, Gorski got off to a slow start, hitting just one home run and putting up a wRC+ of 75 through April.
While May has been strong for Gorski, that has even been more the case over this past week.
From May 18-25, Gorski has gone 11-25 with 11 runs scored, a double, two triples, and six home runs while driving in 18 runs and stealing a base.
Gorski has put together back-to-back 20/20 seasons in the minors for the Pirates but has just three stolen bases this year. He’s up to seven home runs now on the season, which gives him the lead among hitters in the Pirates’ system.
Gorski is a strong defender in center field. He has also played first base, where he has the power to profile well.
The swing isn’t the prettiest and likely causes his swing-and-miss issues, but it does highlight just how much raw power he has in his bat.
Gorski was always someone who had some intrigue due to his raw tools, and it’s generally not a surprise that he is capable of this kind of a stretch; it’s the rest of the time that has kind of limited him as a potential prospect.
PJ Hilson, power hitter?
When the Pirates selected PJ Hilson in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft, they got someone who had been drafted out of high school in 2018 but had yet to make it out of Single-A.
He had also never hit more than 11 home runs in a single season, which was back in 2022 when he split time between the Arizona Complex League and Single-A San Jose.
Since getting promoted to Greensboro, Hilson has five home runs in 12 games at High-A, a level he had yet to play at heading into the season.
Hilson was in a tie with Gorski for the system lead in home runs before the latter jumped ahead of him.
Greensboro is known as a very hitter-friendly environment, and Hilson has leaned into that, all five home runs have come at First National Bank Field.
The Pirates got Joshua Palacios in the minor league phase of the Rule 5, and while they likely won’t get the same impact from Hilson, as a depth role player, he’s certainly carrying his own weight in the Grasshopper lineup.
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A guy who can play first and center with home run power would be nice, lol.
My professional scouting service projects Gorski to be a future softball player. However, "we" have been wrong in the last like when we predicted that Roansy Contraras would become the Pirate's Pedro Martinez....just slightly off on that one. Given our past inaccuracy, I reached out to GMBC advising him to give Gorski a shot at 1B. Could he be any worse than Tellez? Haven't heard back yet.