The Pirates and prospect Konnor Griffin are reportedly deep into extension negotiations, per Buster Olney of ESPN.
It doesn’t appear that anything is done or agreed to yet but it seems the two sides aren’t too far apart. Olney’s report frames Pittsburgh as hoping to get something done that is comparable to Corbin Carroll‘s $111MM eight-year deal with Arizona while Griffin’s camp is targeting Roman Anthony‘s $130MM eight-year pact with Boston. Given that the gap is less than $20MM, perhaps something can get done. A couple of weeks ago, Jon Heyman of The New York Post suggested the Pirates could be willing to get to the $110MM range. Last week, Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the two sides had indeed discussed an eight-year deal worth $110MM.
Griffin is not yet 20 years old and hasn’t played in the majors yet but he is the top prospect in the game right now and many consider him the best prospect seen in years. Last year, he slashed .333/.415/.527 while hitting 21 home runs and stealing 65 bases.
He topped out at Double-A yet seemed to have a chance at breaking camp with the club here in 2026. He hit four home runs in spring training but his other numbers were not great, as he slashed .171/.261/.488. Part of that was a .125 batting average on balls in play but Griffin also struck out at a 28.3% clip and only drew a walk in 4.3% of his plate appearances.
That surely didn’t do anything to dampen the club’s long-term hopes for Griffin but the Pirates decided to start the season with him at the Triple-A level. He has a .462/.588/.692 slash in four games to start the season.
Extensions for players with little or no major league experience have become far more common in recent years. Earlier this week, Colt Emerson and the Mariners set a new benchmark for pre-debut guys, signing an eight-year deal with a $92MM guarantee.
Emerson is one of the 10 to 15 top prospects in the league but, as mentioned, Griffin is the clear #1 and is perhaps the best prospect in quite some time. With that in mind, he should sail past Emerson’s guarantee and it seems like the talks are already past that point.
For extensions signed quite early in a player’s career, Carroll and Anthony are some of the most notable. Carroll and Anthony each signed within two months of their respective debuts. Julio Rodríguez has the record for a deal for a player with less than a year of service time. Towards the end of his rookie season, he and the Mariners signed a convoluted deal with a $210MM guarantee and multiple club/player options.
The largest contract in Pittsburgh’s franchise history is the $100MM deal they signed with Bryan Reynolds a few years back. It seems they are willing and hoping to break that record to lock up Griffin as part of their core. The longer they wait, the harder that will become. Young players generally gain earning power as they push further into their careers and closer to free agency, as the Rodríguez deal shows. For guys with two years of service time, Bobby Witt Jr. got a $288.8MM guarantee while Fernando Tatis Jr. got $340MM. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got $500MM when he was just a few months from free agency.
It’s been over a decade since the Pirates last made the playoffs but it’s possible better days are ahead. They have already graduated a number of exciting young players onto their major league roster in recent years, headlined by Paul Skenes. Their farm system is currently ranked by many outlets as the best in the majors. That’s in large part due to Griffin but they also have Edward Florentino, Seth Hernandez and other exciting young prospects on the way. They had a busy offseason, adding Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, Marcell Ozuna and others as they try to take a step forward.
Griffin will be a key part of the competitive window that appears to be opening but the Bucs would naturally love to extend the relationship if they can. From Griffin’s perspective, he would have to be willing to delay his path to free agency. Going year to year could potentially mean hitting the open market after his age-25 or -26 season. Signing a deal now would lock in an upfront guarantee while perhaps still giving him a chance to become a free agent before his 30th birthday.
Without a deal officially signed, there’s a notable ticking clock with Griffin’s service time. A major league season is 187 days long but a player only needs 172 days in the majors to be credited with a full year of service time. That means Griffin can still hit that one-year mark if called up in the next week. If he does so without an extension in place, he would be eligible to earn the Pirates an extra draft pick via the Prospect Promotion Incentive, though players who sign pre-debut extensions are not PPI eligible. If Griffin is still in the minors by the end of next week, he wouldn’t be able to get a full year of service the old-fashioned way but would be credited with one year retroactively if he is eventually called up and places in the top two in National League Rookie of the Year voting.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Get it done and bring him up!
Here come all the nutting haters. He’s a good man with a generous heart and he’s done quite a lot for the Pittsburgh community and beyond so quit hating the man.
That you, Bobby?
A+ Nutting. Extends every player that should be extended. Provides all the resources needed when needed.
He’s a carpetbagging profiteer who has mostjy done for himself. While I salute Pirates charities and the Miracle Fields, you can save your propaganda. He decided to spend this off season. Nice of him
I don’t believe for one second that he’s giving up profits. He will make this money back one way or another. He has a profit addiction.
I won’t hate on him, though it’s completely justified in many regards, and just say a verifiable fact–he is risk averse and perhaps the most risk averse owner in MLB. He plays his investments very safe and, if he does extend Griffin, this is an encouraging sign because it’d be one of the first big risks he’s taken (and it’s not even that big a risk).
It’s a big risk.Lets this guy play in the ML’s for a year.You would pay more but life changing money at 20 years of age is a very,very big deal.
It’s a risk, yes, but I don’t know many teams who wouldn’t take this risk. It’s a big deal that it’s the Pirates simply because of their history of adverseness to risk.
The risk is much more to Griffin. If he doesn’t sign this deal he could become a free agent by 26/27 and set himself up for a 500 million dollar easily if he is as good as advertised. The owners have to love the players doing these deals— it takes more guys out of the free agent market.
How’d you like your daughter to have married him at the age of 19 like someone’s daughter just did
Raise that “good man” banner proudly!
You cannot hoard wealth the way he does and be considered a good man with a generous heart, I dont care how much he gives away for the tax benefits.
If people really do hate him like you say it’s probably for the product the Pirates I’ve been putting on the field for the past whole bunch of years.
He’s overseen just about the least successful team in sports for 20 years. This signing would be great but how could you possibly say he doesn’t deserve all the criticism he’s gotten over that time?
The Browns and Jets would like a word.
But, you’re not too far off haha
These extensions for minor-league players work out great for both player and team, until they don’t. As soon as one of these ends badly, it may slow down these extensions for prospects
that is exactly the point – how poorly can these really end? white sox gave eloy 6 years $43m, it didn’t work out, doesn’t cripple the org. red sox gave roansy all that cash to sit in AAA. it’s not going to stop teams from cashing in while they’re young
Those are not small market teams and there is much more money than that on the table.
You have to gamble when it makes sense. They all don’t have to work out. Just hit on a few and you are good.
And it makes a lot more sense for big market teams than small market teams,
Kristian Campbell’s extension looks pretty terrible and that hasn’t stopped teams from doing this.
What happened to Campbell is the exact problem with this type of contract. They paid him before he proved anything. He wasn’t ready. They didn’t send him down for way too long, because it would look bad. And so his development is derailed.
Campbell is not the appropriate comparison to Griffin. A better comparison would be A-Rod. I’m sure the M’s would have loved to buy out two free agent years of his. Griffin isnt quite A-Rod level, but he closer to that than Kristian Campbell
As far as we know you mean?
Another point is that even the “can’t miss”’prospects do sometimes
How do you know that he will be anywhere close to ARod who would have been a first year HOFer if it wasn’t for drugs?
You could hit on less than half of these pre-MLB extensions and still end up well ahead financially if you’re targeting the right guys.
It’s a calculated risk while running a business. Some extensions work, some don’t. Why would teams stop investing in their multi-billion organizations because of a misstep when valuations continue to escalate with record attendance and revenues? There’s a big picture to look at here.
A shining recent example is Scott Kingery who was extended either before his debut or shortly after. Phils got burned on that one.
Tis the summer of extensions
There it is. What we’ve all been waiting for. Biggest out of the pre career extensions by far. The Pirates locking down a potential face of the franchise.
I find it amusing how it is called an “extension” when the player doesn’t even have any Major League experience. While this wouldn’t happen to Konnor Griffin, a player in the same circumstances could be released at no financial cost to the team; hence, he doesn’t really have a contract. The word “extension” would be more accurate when a player under an existing contract adds more years to that contract. Kind of like how a player who has never been in the majors gets “recalled” to the Big Leagues because he’s already on the 40-man roster.
Player gets “recalled” because he was optioned down at some point, usually at the end of spring training. The active MLB roster is only 26 players, so 14 are optioned to begin the season.
I read it as an extension of team control.
You just don’t understand whats going on man.
First, as bucs fan already touched on, any player on the 40-man has to be “optioned” and use one of their option years if they’re going to be sent to the minors, even if it’s to start a season. Hence why they’re “recalled” when added to the 26 man roster.
Second, minor leaguers are still under contract man. Just because there’s no guarantee and one party can sever the relationship at will doesn’t mean there’s no contract in place. So “extension” is entirely appropriate. A player without a contract is called a free agent, and last time I checked Konnor Griffin is not a free agent.
interesting trend lately, I think it is foreshadowing to the expected outcome of the next CBA. Will free agency become a less lucrative endeavor than it has been lately?
I’m not sure about less lucrative, but it is a very interesting trend. I think it’s a win-win move for both sides. I’d kind of love to see some form of restricted FA before six years of service time (maybe as a sort of alternate path thru arbitration for players who don’t want to go Y2Y), but I know that’d have huge ramifications on the business model.
It’s always been a smart thing to do. Not many smart people running teams so it took them a lot of time to catch on.
maybe i’m preaching to the choir
but these extensions arent really “extensions”
they add 1 maybe 2 years
the real point of these “extensions” is to avoid paying big bucks during arbitration years. skubal is making $32 mil this season. the cubs and mariners and pirates would like to avoid paying that kind of salary for their young studs down the road. they’re locking up the price more than they’re locking up a player
Cost-controlling arbitration years is definitely part of the calculus, but the real value is buying out would-be FA years for a bargain price. Tucker just got $60M AAV with multiple opt-outs for prime age-curve years. If Griffin produces like people think he might, you’re talking relative cost savings of 70% or more to FA.
Which is why I am surprised that his side would take this deal.
I think it’s hard to say no to nine figures with another crack at FA in your 20s.
Talk to the Astros about Jon Singleton and the Phillies about Mike Kingery.
They are usually at least 2 years. Let’s see how many you can name for only 1 year. Why would you give someone guaranteed $ for only 1 year. You could if it’s cheap enough but when you are talking hundreds of millions you want at least 2 years.
It’s about getting 2 or more prime years without committing to paying them until they are 40 years old.
Controlled arbitration is a plus but if the main reason they would just do 6 years instead of 8 or 9.
We’re talking about guys like Arod and Tucker as comparisons to players with zero major league AB’s.
Ridiculous IMO.
Most projections have Konor Griffin hitting for a league-average offense at 20 years old in 400-500 PAs. Catastrophic injuries aside, the chances of him completely busting at the ML are about as low as you can get. Turn this argument around a bit: what do you think Nationals would’ve offered Soto pre-debut for 2-3 extra years of control knowing what he got now in FA?
Weird how all the haters on the Colt Emerson extension aren’t speaking up here. Both great players, and it’s smart to lock them up. Never will understand the people against that. Get it done Pirates!
Great players for limited times in the minor leagues.
Small and mid market teams.
And a LA Dodger fan talking.
Great big difference in market sizes and annual revenues.
So what I’m a Dodger fan? That’s irrelevant here. We’ll likely do the same with De Paula and/or Hope when they get close to MLB ready
So what means that you a fan of a team with the most money in baseball and mistakes can be easily buried.
The Carroll and Anthony deals got the team 3 years of free agent control. Which is good.
The Emmerson deal got the team 2 years of free agent control, which is less good.
I’m hoping for the Pirates fan base his deal falls with the former group.
You get an extension, you get an extension l, every prospect gets an extension!
Pirates want to extend Lando Griffin’s brother instead of extending Paul Skenes?
Skenes is probably already out of reach for a small market.
Good for Pittsburgh and the kid.
Pirates currently control Griffin for 6 years and at most he’ll make is $70M.
A 8 year extension better have some options if it’s $130M as the Pirates are getting the final two years for $30M. VERY few players are worth $30/yr. OR go 9 for $135. One more year changes all the math.
Ah! Like the smell of new flowers blooming from their wintery sleep, the spring contract extension fever is filling the air.
There goes Skenes then
This isn’t an April Fools joke, this is psychological warfare.