First-year Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly didn’t indicate that 19-year-old top prospect Konnor Griffin has a shot at starting for the big club in 2026.
He also didn’t say he wouldn’t.
Griffin, USA TODAY Sports’ 2025 Minor League Player of the Year, had a banner year in his first full professional season, rising from low Class A Bradenton through high A Greensboro (N.C.) before a 21-game finish at Class AA Altoona (Pa.), all the while maintaining a .941 OPS and smacking 21 homers.
By any measure, the 6-4, 225-pound consensus No. 1 overall prospect could use more time, perhaps another full year, in the minors. On the other hand…
‘We’re still talking about a lot of that. It’s too early to say exactly what’s going to happen there,’ Kelly told reporters at baseball’s winter meetings in Orlando, responding to a question about whether Griffin will be in the mix for the starting shortstop job.
‘But as far as a 19-year-old guy that just came out of high school, the year that he had to go through three levels and play the way that he played, the sky’s the limit for him.
‘The talent that you see, the wiring, the way he goes about it, he’s really, really, impressive.’
Griffin’s ascension coincides with a relatively exciting time in the Pirates organization, what with Paul Skenes capturing the NL Cy Young Award and the front office sending smoke signals out that it will swim in deeper free agent waters this winter – or at least try.
Now, the ninth overall pick in the 2024 draft is lurking, with an apparent chance to knock down the door to Pittsburgh before his 20th birthday next April 24.