One of the most exciting stories of the early offseason for the Pittsburgh Pirates has involved top prospect Konnor Griffin. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Pirates are “strongly considering” giving Griffin, MLB’s No. 1 prospect, the chance to win their Opening Day shortstop job.
Ben Cherington recently addressed the possibility of promoting Griffin next year in an interview with MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf, saying they “have to think about it” when evaluating their offseason plans.
“Typically you would see a player like that and think they would benefit from some more time at the upper levels of the Minor Leagues,” Cherington told Stumpf. “We haven’t made a decision. The great thing about Konnor is, when we put a challenge in front of him, he’s met that challenge. To some degree, we’re going to keep doing that, and to some degree, he’s going to tell us a little bit about what the timeline is.”
Griffin is only 19 and has played just one professional season, so Pittsburgh wants to be careful about rushing him to the big leagues.
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The ninth pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Griffin only has 122 games of Minor League experience, including just 21 at Double-A. The Pirates may want to give him additional seasoning and make sure he’s fully prepared before calling him up.
However, Griffin already looks ready for The Show after dominating the Minors last year, batting .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs and 65 stolen bases across three levels while winning the MiLB Gold Glove at shortstop.
Pittsburgh still has several months to weigh its options and figure out a game plan for Griffin. Even if he doesn’t open the season with the Pirates, he could still come up later in the year once he gets a few more Minor League games under his belt.
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