The Pirates are calling up shortstop Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in all of baseball, to make his major league debut in tomorrow’s home opener, Pirates insider Jason Mackey reports. The team has confirmed Griffin’s promotion but has not yet formally selected his contract to the 40-man roster. They’ll need to do so and make corresponding 26-man and 40-man transactions prior to first pitch tomorrow.
Griffin was in the mix to break camp on Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster but was reassigned to minor league camp late in spring training. The two parties have continued talks on what would be a record-setting contract extension — expected to be both the largest ever for a player with little to no major league service time (surpassing Colt Emerson‘s recent eight-year $95MM deal with the Mariners) and the Pirates’ franchise-record contract ($100MM for Bryan Reynolds).
It’s possible the Bucs simply wanted Griffin to make his debut at home, popping ticket sales throughout the weekend and further boosting excitement for fans after an uncharacteristically aggressive offseason. It’s also feasible that the two parties have become close enough on a long-term contract that the Pirates are making the move to promote him now and will announce an extension not long after his debut. The benefits in that scenario are straightforward. Players who sign extensions before making their MLB debut are not eligible to net draft picks for their club under MLB’s prospect promotion incentives; players who sign extensions after debuting remain PPI eligible. So long as any contract is finalized after Griffin has debuted, he’d net the Pirates an extra draft pick either by winning 2026 NL Rookie of the Year honors or with a top-three finish in MVP voting in 2026-28. (A player can only generate one total PPI pick for his team.)
Griffin is still three weeks away from his 20th birthday, but the 19-year-old phenom will get his chance to prove he’s ready for the big time. A physical beast already standing 6’3″ and weighing 225 pounds, Griffin is perhaps the most touted No. 1 overall prospect in recent memory. He draws plus (60) to plus-plus (70) grades on the 20-80 scale for all of his tools across the board. Griffin is an elite runner who scouts believe can stick at shortstop while hitting for both average and power.
Selected with the No. 9 overall pick in 2024, Griffin has played just one full professional season, and the results were borderline comical. He sprinted through the minors last year, climbing from Low-A to Double-A and absolutely raking at each of his three stops. Griffin totaled 563 plate appearances overall and slashed .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and an eye-popping 65 stolen bases in 78 tries (83.3%). He walked at an 8.9% clip and struck out at a 21.7% rate.
Those numbers are staggering on their own. By measure of wRC+, Griffin was 65% better than an average hitter across those three levels. That ignores the context that the Mississippi native was among the youngest players — if not the youngest player — at all of those stops. Griffin hit just .171 in 46 spring plate appearances with the Pirates but still popped four home runs. He’s taken 21 plate appearances in Triple-A to begin this season and gone 7-for-16 with three doubles, three steals, five walks and only four strikeouts.
With the Pirates, Griffin will immediately step in as the team’s everyday shortstop. That’ll push Jared Triolo to a bench role for which he’s probably better suited. Triolo is an adept defender at multiple infield spots but carries just a .234/.319/.343 slash in 1054 plate appearances at the major league level. He can mix in at any of the four infield spots now, though he’s not going to supplant starters Spencer Horwitz (first base), Brandon Lowe (second base) or Nick Gonzales (third base) unless there’s an injury or a prolonged stretch of poor play from Gonzales as he acclimates to the hot corner.
Griffin steps into a big league lineup that has been substantially revamped since last season. The Pirates didn’t get the biggest fish they pursued this winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto), but they still brought in several established veteran bats who’ve unequivocally bolstered the offense. Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum came over from the Rays alongside lefty reliever Mason Montgomery in a three-team trade sending young righty Mike Burrows to Houston. Ryan O’Hearn signed a two-year, $29MM in free agency. Marcell Ozuna later came aboard for a year and $12MM. Griffin now joins newcomers like Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna in the heart of a vastly improved lineup that Pirates hopes will better support the team’s excellent young pitching staff.
Service time considerations seemingly weren’t a factor in Griffin’s promotion. He’s still being called up in time to get a full year of major league service even without a Rookie of the Year win. His timelines for reaching arbitration and free agency would be rendered moot if Griffin eventually signs an extension, as many expect, but as things currently stand he’d be on track for arbitration eligibility following the 2028 season and free agency following the 2031 season, when he’d be just 25 years old (and going into his age-26 season). Griffin is so young that even a record-setting extension could still position him to reach the open market well ahead of his 30th birthday.
Griffin is the first of many young Pirates hitters who could impact the team this season. Pittsburgh also picked up touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia in a trade with the Red Sox, and he should get a look in the majors before too long. Infielder Termarr Johnson‘s stock has dipped in recent seasons, but he’s still just 21 years old and coming off a nice 2025 showing in Double-A. Catcher/first baseman Rafael Flores Jr., another trade acquisition (from the Yankees in last summer’s David Bednar swap) had a big season between Double-A and Triple-A last year and could hit his way into a bigger audition in 2026 as well.
For now, all eyes are on Griffin — both to witness the debut of one of the best prospects in recent memory and also to see whether he signs a franchise-altering extension that’d lock him in beyond his original six seasons of club control.
I guess you could say I’m excited.
Some really good young talent in Pittsburgh. But until you’re willing to spend it will be wasted.
And they are spending!
All small market teams have limits as to what they can spend because of their limited revenue streams.
Nutting has shown that the would spend when he has a good team or the potential to have one.
He did this in the middle of the last decade,and he has started doing it now.
I believe this is a near guarantee that the deal is all but finalized(or announced) at this point. No way the Pirates promote him and start his service time clock now without a done deal.
Ideal timeline for Pirates would be: call him up, he plays 1 game, then they finalize the contract. That way he’s PPI eligible too.
That’s the same thing I think will happen with Cooper Pratt in Milwaukee, unless they are just locking him into a deal and still want him to play at AAA. They learned their lesson I think signing Chourio the day before he made his debut 2 years ago. He didn’t place for the PPI but it would have screwed them big time if he did.
I’m sure they have an agreement that this is happening
Wow that didn’t take very long! Good for him!
Great news!… this bumps Triolo to the bench where he should always be. I’m assuming an extension for Griffin is coming soon also
I feel a little bad for Triolo as he’s not nearly as bad as people act like but this makes the most sense. Not like he’ll never play now but this is the best role for him.
Triolo is a great defensive player but is too erratic at the plate
Fell the same but now who’s on 3rd? Gonzales should be with his hot start, but we know Kelly loves Triolo.
Nick is a good player and deserves to start at third now that he has been doing so.
Triolo may have been pressing knowing that Griffin would be coming up but I agree that he is a good utility man and that is his best position unless Gonzalez goes downhill at third base and then he becomes the utility man.
Gonzalez. Sure WAR doesn’t love him but doesn’t it seem like he comes up with a lot of timely hits? People seem to forget he was actually a good prospect. And Triolo can fill in for him, Lowe and Horowitz who’s off to a slow start.
Gonzalez is underrated by many posters on here because he is not flashy with big numbers.
He always hustles and is a smart player who went outside the inept organization structure to become a better player.
He also broke his ankle the first week of last season and his numbers for the year suffered accordingly.
Fortunately Cherington and Kelly have been smart enough to realize that he is a solid player.
In defense of Horowitz, he’s only started three games and is penciled in at the bottom of the lineup, behind, of all players, Triolo
Agreed. The kid really worked on his hitting on his own. Plays hard. There has to be a place for him on the roster even if he’s not starting. Refreshing attitude when so many have come up, floundered, and looked like they didn’t really care
Have to believe this means an extension is imminent (or already agreed upon in principle but they’re waiting until after he is called up to formalize it so that he can be PPI eligible).
LET’S GO! Haven’t been this excited for a home opener since….well, forever
This is so exciting. Pirates fan deserve something good finally. I can’t wait to see what this season and the next few have in store.
Those 5 games in AAA were really necessary for his development.
…so what was the point of not having Griffin on the opening day roster?
Absolutely ensure the Home Opener sells out? Save that pop for the home fans?
This fan is completely in agreement with it.
Everybody knows this new contract is imminent so I’m thinking it was to keep the media circus down?
Service time was the point. But I’d be willing to bet an extension is announced within the next week, making service time largely meaningless.
As a baseball fan it’s always exciting to see top prospects get called up. Excited for the Pirates and their fans
Seems like too much of a free swinger, i think he still needs work on his plate discipline
He’s 19.
Frqnk Thomas was 19 once and he was already way ahead in plate discipline.
Frank Thomas was playing at Auburn when he was 19
Going back 35 years to find this example? Thanks for proving my point.
His hit tool is graded 60.
I think maybe you’re missing the in-season progress he made in that regard. He spent most of the year in low-A and high-A ball, and after promotion he sliced 3% off his K rate while almost doubling his BB rate (to a healthy 12%).
He’ll want to work on further progress in both areas, true enough, but check out how he compares to Roman Anthony as he made his progress through the minors.
If he gets demoted, so be it. Trout had to go back to AAA. So did Mickey Mantle. And numerous other great players. Won’t mean the end of the world. Dude is too good to not figure it out.
But is he as good as Volpe?
Pittsburgh doesn’t care about winning. they only care about delaying servicetime
How does this comment make any sense
Pirates1987
He hates another franchise more than he loves his favorite team basically.
Normally, I would agree with that statement but how did keeping him down for a week accomplish that?
If that was truly the case wouldn’t he be kept down until June?
My-Then why did they spend money this offseason on hitters if they do not care about winning?
Small market teams have to produce from within as they cannot indiscriminately buy players that were developed by other teams.
The Pirates have only developed well from within the last couple of years and they have been pitchers up until now.
yeah, signing good free agents, raising the payroll to $100 million, the highest in team history and making significant trades to improve their offense, they don’t care about winning
You must be high
Skenes changed all that when he made his comment about wanting to play for a contender in Pittsburgh. Somehow, ownership came out of its coma of frugality. The very fact that they signed some good players and finally elevated talented young arms instead of hunting for retreads in the bargain basement as per usual should say as much
So call him up now that you cant get a 1st round pick for him winning ROTY …..
Not a smart org
They had until April 9th to call him up to be PPI eligible, knowledgeable one.
Pretty ironic screen name he has there, eh?
Why wouldn’t they still be eligible for that?
How would the pirates get the draft pick? If he wasn’t called up on opening day, how come Skenes didn’t
Get them a pick despite winning ROY
As long as he doesn’t sign an extension before his start tomorrow and he places in the top 2 in ROTY voting, they will get the draft pick. Skenes didn’t get called up until May which is why he wasn’t eligible for the pick
I believe its with in a few weeks of opening day.
Oh baby! I heavily invested in Griffin in fantasy drafts, let’s see what you got, kid! Congratulations!
Opening day is sold out, so “ticket sales ” is a line of Crack. The extension news has been blowing up my feed so much that I read the Cincinnati reports for yesterday’s game.
Whole weekend will probably be packed because of this. Exciting if you’re a Pitt fan. I thought about taking a trip up to see him play the O’s this weekend.
I agree with both grumpy and Baltimore that the second and third games are often played in inclement weather and this hype will possibly guarantee sellouts in them also.
This kid can’t even go out for drinks with his teammates for just over a year. He’ll be 20 in late April
This is awesome, this is the most hyped I’ve ever been for a game I have tickets for.
I’m jealous. Have fun!
3 of the most exciting position players I have seen in quite sometime are Griffin, McGonigle, and Jesus Made. If those 3 even get close to their ceilings. This next generation of superstar prospects are going to be so much fun to watch. I would lock any of those 3 into a long term extension ASAP. The Pirates also have one on the pitching side that in Seth Hernandez who has all of the tools and pitches to be a front of the rotation talent. Between him, Skenes, and Bubba Chandler headlining a future rotation, and Griffin anchoring the lineup. This should be the time that The Pirates start finding all of the pennies they have stowed away under the couch cushions and start extending some of these guys now before they get too far out of the price range. Although Skenes may be already.
Watch McGonigle. He’s already there. He makes contact and hits the ball hard, even when he makes outs. He runs hard. He fields consistently even though there was a knock against his fielding. He wears his socks high. He is a ballplayer. Good luck with Konnor Griffin. Maybe the Tigers and Pirates will meet in a future World Series!
They probably waited until today to post this, so older fans wouldn’t be thinking Sid Finch.
The Griffin ERA starts NOW! Ready for a superstar, here we GO.
I want to congratulate Scott publicly. He called this a few days ago. Maybe it was predictable, maybe not. But I hope they put him in the lineup and keep him there. How they wrecked Henry Davis when they called him up a couple years ago should be a blueprint of how not to handle a young player. He’s just now starting to come out of his funk, however incrementally it might be
MLB.com says that Griffin is scheduled to start in the home opener
Davis still swings at pitches no where close to the plate, striking out 3 times in yesterday’s game
And Bart is no better offensively so far
They now need a catcher who can hit consistently
Henry Davis=Big bust.
Well played Buccos, well played. Even if somehow Griffin doesn’t live up to the hype, the Pirates brass have played the media card very well in this case.
Getting that PPI!