This week's mailbag gets into extension possibilities, realignment problems, whether a Ketel Marte trade makes sense, Reid Detmers' future, and much more.
Greg asks:
With a good spring is there a possibility of the Pirates signing Konnor Griffin long-term and starting him on Day 1?
In Baseball America's August update, shortstop Konnor Griffin was ranked as the top prospect in all of baseball. BA wrote, "Griffin has taken off like a meteor this season and his penchant for impact hasn’t slowed down even despite a promotion to High-A. The 19-year-old has made significant strides in allaying concerns about his hit tool and approach, and the rest of his overall game has evaluators buzzing as they envision how his plus power, speed and at least above-average defense at two different positions could come together."
Griffin has mostly played shortstop this year, with the occasional start in center field. He posted a 156 wRC+ in A ball and got even better in High-A with a 169 mark. Though he doesn't turn 20 until next April, Griffin got another promotion to Double-A this past weekend.
Given that Griffin has played one game in Double-A and the Altoona Curve only have 23 more on the schedule, putting him on the Pirates' Opening Day roster next year at age 19 would be aggressive, perhaps to the point of being detrimental. Even Jackson Chourio played 122 games at Double-A and had a brief taste of Triple-A. But let's explore the likelihood of an extension.
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I read Griffin is struggling badly. Hope he can figure things out turn it around.
LOL
If he’s struggling, it’s with something off the field bc he’s certainly not struggling on the field.
.250 average in AA for #1 prospect in baseball I guess is the reasoning. I personally think we need a bigger sample size.
You mean that 4 AB in one game isn’t a big enough sample size???
There will be no realignment until there is expansion.
I was 16 when the Rockies/Marlins expansion draft took place and I remember it vividly. It was a new concept to me (having been an infant in 1977 during the previous MLB expansion). I followed it closely.
Living about 80 miles West of Nashville, I’d welcome an expansion team there. Being a Braves fan since the mid 80s, I’m fine with the Braves being realigned to a division with the new Nashville team. Much shorter drive to Nashville than Atlanta 😊
Don’t you have a minor league team in Nashville?
How’s this for geographic realignment? I think it makes better sense than the graphic I saw MLB on Fox post recently.
Atlantic: Boston, NYY, NYM, Philly
East: Baltimore, Washington, Cincy, Nashville expansion team
Southeast: Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Charlotte expansion team
Great Lakes: Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Pittsburgh
Midwest: Minnesota, Milwaukee, CWS, CHC
Plains: St. Louis, KC, Texas, Houston
Southwest: Colorado, Arizona, Vegas, San Diego
Pacific: LAA, LAD, San Francisco, Seattle
AL can have the Atlantic, Great Lakes, Plains, and Southwest divisions
NL can have the East, Southeast, Midwest, and Pacific divisions
NL loses one of their classic franchises (STL) and a big market (PHI), but gains both expansion teams to make up for it.
Every division has all 4 teams in the same time zone except for the East thanks to all the cities near Nashville being in EST and except for the Southwest thanks to Mountain Time.
Most of the game’s famous rivalries are preserved (BOS/NYY, NYM/PHI, LAD/SF, NYM/NYY, CHC/CWS, MIL/CHC, HOU/TX), though regrettably LAD/SD and CHC/STL don’t survive.
In place of some of the good rivalries that die there is potential for compelling new geographical rivalries that historically haven’t ran super deep due to those teams being in different leagues, like STL/KC, BAL/DC, Vegas/SD, It also gives room to expand on existing geographical rivalries that are more intense in other sports but haven’t ran very deep in baseball like MIN/MIL, ATL/Charlotte, CLE/PITT.
Playoff format could essentially stay the same, with 6 teams from each league making it in.
Ugh you don’t put the royals in the same division as the Cardinals the rangers and the Astros!!!
There’s already a minor league team in Nashville.
I thought about doing Colorado instead of Houston, but then one of the Texas teams would have to be paired with Vegas/SD/Arizona and that wouldn’t be ideal either. Sorry, KC.
And yes, there is also a minor league team in Charlotte. I’ve seen both of them. Hasn’t stopped the league from flirting with both cities as expansion sites. I don’t know what that will mean for the Sounds or the Knights, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time before we find out.