Matt Gorksi Headlines Pirates’ Minor League Award Winners From Tuesday

The Pittsburgh Pirates handed out honors to four minor leaguers in their yearly minor league award announcements on Tuesday.

Outfielder Matt Gorksi was named the Willie Stargell Slugger-of-the-Year after belting 24 home runs in just 81 games on the season down on the Pirates’ farm.

At the time of his promotion from High-A Greensboro to Double-A Altoona on May 24, Gorksi was first in all of minor league baseball with 17 long balls. He was also first in the South Atlantic League in RBIs (37) and slugging percentage (.754).

In addition to Gorski, Tyler Samaniego was named the Kent Tekulve Reliever-of-the-Year after posting a 2.45 ERA and 14 saves between Greensboro and Altoona.

Samaniego limited opposing batters to a miniscule .114 batting average against which was the lowest mark for any minor league reliever in 2022.

For the second straight season, third baseman Jared Triolo was awarded the Bill Mazersoki Defender-of-the-Year award.

Coming off of winning a minor league Gold Glove last season, Triolo again had a strong defensive season with most of his work at the hot corner. Triolo also appeared at short stop and in center field with Altoona.

Triolo finished tops in the Eastern League with 15 double plays and second in fielding percentage (.970) amongst players with at least 60 games at third.

Finally, infielder Tsung-Che Cheng was named the Omar Moreno Baserunner-of-the-Year in the Pirates’ system.

Cheng swiped 33 bases, leading all Pirates’ prospects in 2022. He finished second in the Florida State League with his stolen base mark while with Bradenton.

The 23-year-old Cheng also legged out seven triples and scored 79 runs, which both led the league.

The Pirates will continue to announce their minor league award winners this week.