The Pirates announced that star prospect Konnor Griffin has been reassigned to the team’s minor league spring camp. Barring something surprising like a last-minute contract extension, the transaction seems to confirm that Griffin won’t be part of Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster.
This was probably always the likeliest scenario, as Griffin is still just over a month away from his 20th birthday and has yet to even make his Triple-A debut. Though Griffin crushed Double-A pitching to the tune of a .337/.418/.542 slash line in 2025, those big numbers came in the relatively small sample size of 98 plate appearances over 21 games. In Spring Training action, Griffin showed some big power but not much else, hitting .184/.279/.526 over 43 PA and striking out 11 times.
If Griffin had dominated the Grapefruit League, the Pirates might’ve felt more compelled to immediately see what the shortstop could do at the Major League level. An Opening Day assignment would’ve also put the Pirates in line for a potential future bonus draft pick under the Prospect Promotion Incentive plan, though the temptation of an extra pick isn’t as important to the Bucs as Griffin’s continued development. For context, the Pirates also didn’t bring Paul Skenes up for his MLB debut until May of the 2024 season, even though Skenes’ immediate dominance indicated that he might well have been ready for the Show on Opening Day.
A pre-career extension might’ve also done the trick in getting Griffin to the Opening Day lineup, and last month, both Griffin and the Pirates had some interest in such a deal. Such an extension surely would’ve topped Jackson Chourio‘s eight-year, $82MM pact with the Brewers as the largest deal ever given to a player before his MLB debut, and the New York Post’s’ Jon Heyman writes “and some believe” the Pirates (never known for their big spending) are comfortable going to such record lengths in a nine-figure contract.
Griffin looks like the kind of special talent that merits this kind of investment. The ninth overall pick of the 2024 draft hit a combined .333/.415/.527 over 563 PA split between the A-ball, high-A, and Double-A levels in 2025, with 21 home runs and 65 steals (in 78 attempts). All of the major scouting outlets have Griffin atop their preseason top-100 prospect rankings, with scouting reports raving about his five-tool skills. Primarily a shortstop, Griffin has dabbled a bit in center field since his athleticism translates so well to either position, and whatever the spot, he looks like a future fixture in Pittsburgh’s lineup.
As dire as the last seven seasons have been for Pirates fans, Griffin’s impending arrival, Skenes’ presence, a bunch of other quality arms in the pipeline, and the fact that the Bucs spent some money on bats this winter are all signs that things could be turning around in the Steel City. Exciting as it would’ve been to have seen Griffin’s debut this week, the Pirates are okay in playing the slightly longer game, even if Griffin might still be in the Show before the All-Star break.
Another Skenes situation where he wins rookie of the year and the pirates still don’t get a draft pick. Smart.
Except this time pirates will wait so they get xtra yr of control. With skenes they brought him up too late to get ppi and too early for that 7th yr of control
If that’s the case, might as well keep him in the minors until he’s forced onto the 40 man roster and out of minor league options.
He certainly didn’t force his way onto the roster with his spring performance. He’s 19 and barely played at AA. I know fans are anxious, but be patient. He’s not ready.
@stym
Yep
He hit .171 with a .261 obp
Definitely not ready for the majors at this point
If he wins RoY, he automatically receives a full year of service time. So to keep him down, the Pirates either:
– Will keep him down long enough to not win RoY, so probably July
– Hope when thery bring him up he isn’t good enough to win RoY
With the new PPI rule, there is basically no reason to not play MLB ready prospects. They either perform well enough to finish top 3 in RoY or the don’t and you send them down mid season to work on stuff.
If he finishes 1st or 2nd in ROY he gets awarded a full year of service time regardless of when he is called up.
With Skenes they lost his extra year of control because he won the award, not because they brought him up too early. The Pirates lost out on an extra draft pick with Skenes since he wasn’t on the opening day roster.
So they could call up Griffin on June 1st and if he goes off for 4 months and places 1st or 2nd in ROY, he’ll get credited with a full year of service time and again they won’t receive an extra pick.
Who gives a it about the draft pick. It’s absolutely worthless vs a extra year of Skenes. In order to won ROY he had to pitch at what a historic level. Good for him he beat incredible odds. He couldn’t pitch an entire mlb season anyways so it was either call him up in May or shut him down in August. With everyone healthy to start season it made sense to have him start in minors.
That draft pick comes with an additional 3.3m of pool money to spend however a team sees fit. That’s not nothing.
Skeenes was by far the favorite to win the ROY based on pre-season odds:
mlb.com/stories/2024-rookie-of-the-year-award-bett…
Having him throw 27 innings in AAA to start the year was a poor gamble since the outcome wasn’t a surprise.
Draft pick nothing. Doing what’s best to protect and develop the player is all that matters. Draft pick is no guarantee. 1 injury and that draft pick is gone along with the extra year.
A+ assignment
Not hitting well this spring and no time in AAA. Maybe getting a little ahead psychologically. Hopefully he will see this as it is – development time. The last teenager that I can recall that played at MLB (and I am quite confident there have been others since) was Robin Yount. Different baseball world then.
I recall Manny Machado was 19. I’m sure there’s been at least one since his debut, but I’m not sure who. I think Miggy might have been 19 when he debuted, too, prior to Manny.
He could play at mlb now. He’s as good as a few players who will make opening day roster. But he isn’t significantly better so why lose a year of service time. Still things he can work on at the minor league level.
Juan Soto
Recently, Soto was only age 19 as a debut with the nasty Nats.
Good move by the Bucs. He had the home runs but not much else. He needs to settle into the season and once he gets consistent at the plate and hitting like he has in the past consistently, the bring him up to play.
“Star prospect” is something that should not exist.
Can we please wait til these guys accomplish anything in the major leagues before we crown them and bend the knee to them?
they didn’t bend the knee, they sent him to the minors
but I get what you’re saying.
the guy might turn down a $100MM contract extension right now. no, he hasn’t done anything in the bigs yet, obviously, but one of the best prospects the game has had in years is significant. I think calling him a star prospect fits pretty well.
Did anyone really think this isn’t what the Pirates would do?
Booooooooo
Indianapolis Indians are loaded
Hitting less than .200 against spring pitching. Even taking into account small sample size, given he has had no AAA bats either, hard to say he’s ready.
Hitting less than .200 against spring pitching. Hard to criticize giving him time to adjust to pitching better than AA level.
Griffin was ripping the cover off the ball in ST. His batting average doesn’t reflect how good he was really doing, but this still isn’t totally unexpected, even if I was in denial of it happening. The only problem is now shortstop is up to Nick Gonzales and Alika Williams.
Okay, so I guess it’ll be up to Gonzales because Williams is going to Triple-A.
The biggest thing that sucks is that the Pirates likely lose out on the extra draft pick, and will be without a 3-WAR player for the first month of the season. Griffin doesn’t even have to be a fantastic hitter to provide the Pirates with a ton of value. He puts up a legaue average-ish 95-105 wRC+ and he’ll be a 3-4 WAR shortstop because of how good he is defensively and on the basepaths.
BOOOOOOO! Hate this move, but more for the couple of fantasy teams I drafted him to, lol. I will wait, he’ll be up soon enough.