In Pirates debut, top prospect Konnor Griffin delivers moment to remember

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In the home dugout and bullpen, teammates held aloft traffic cones — the team’s rally symbol that started as a strange phrase on a T-shirt. In the upper deck at PNC Park, fans hoisted their orange cones, too. On Friday, Griffin, baseball’s top prospect, doubled, walked and scored a run in his debut. His first major-league hit ignited a second-inning rally in the Pirates’ 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles in Pittsburgh’s home opener. Afterward, wearing a suit because teammates doused his dirt-stained jersey in a clubhouse celebration, Griffin couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. “That was hands down one of the best days of my life,” he said. To say Griffin had dreamed of this moment is true. Saying he had rehearsed it would be even more accurate. Back home in Mississippi this offseason, Griffin regularly used a HitTrax hitting simulator. He’d pull up PNC Park on the simulator and watch his hits fly around the ballpark. He barreled so many balls to left-center, toward the notch in the deepest part of the playing field, that his family started calling it “Konnor’s Corner.” On Friday, when he found “Konnor’s Corner” for the first time in a game, his family watched from a suite, leaping and hugging and bursting into tears. WELCOME TO THE SHOW, KONNOR GRIFFIN 😤 The 19-year-old phenom mashes an RBI double in his first MLB at-bat! pic.twitter.com/htbNc5pRBQ Griffin will turn 20 in three weeks. “I’m not a scout,” Paul Skenes said, “but I think he’s going to be pretty good.” The mood at PNC Park was nothing short of jubilant. The loudest crowd pops of the afternoon may have been for Griffin’s pregame introduction, Griffin’s run-scoring double, Griffin’s headfirst slide across home plate and Griffin’s successful challenge of a called third strike. Pirates fans are not used to having nice things. They have endured seven consecutive losing seasons. They have seen their Buccos in the postseason only three times in the past 34 years. Yet, they cling to hope. Ticket prices surged after Griffin’s call-up. On the packed concourse, one fan told another, “You ever think you’d see this day?” A “Let’s Go Bucs” chant rang out as soon as the national anthem ended and a four-helicopter flyover passed overhead. “I know it’s a fanbase that’s just starving for a good, winning team,” Griffin said. “I want to be a part of that so bad.” Standing beside the home dugout before the game, Pirates principal owner Bob Nutting said that, while he’s always excited for Opening Day, “this year does feel different.” He described it as the culmination of a “huge amount of work over multiple years” to build the club’s core. The future is now the present. The organization’s war chest of prospects has evolved into a clubhouse full of young major leaguers. After all that waiting — for Skenes, for Bubba Chandler, for Griffin — the main pieces are now in place. At 4:12 p.m. ET, Griffin ascended the steps of the home dugout and took an arcing path to his starting position, not so much jogging as bounding. After 24 steps, he slowed, slapped his mitt with his right hand and stopped at shortstop, a position he plans to occupy in Pittsburgh for many years. There, in his element on the infield dirt, the whirlwind surrounding Griffin started to dissipate. He’d awoken Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and gotten a message from Triple-A Indianapolis manager Eric Patterson, who wanted to meet. In Patterson’s hotel room, Griffin got the good news. He rushed back to his room to tell his wife, Dendy, and phone his parents, Kevin and Kim. “It’s a call I’ll always remember,” Griffin said. Griffin, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, had all but forced the hand of Pittsburgh’s front office. Last year, in his first full pro season, Griffin batted .333 across three minor-league levels and became baseball’s consensus top prospect. As the Pirates surveyed their shortstop options this offseason, it was clear their best upgrade was a high-ceiling internal candidate: the teen phenom. Then Griffin hit .171 in spring training. Manager Don Kelly said he sensed Griffin was pressing as he tried to win a spot on the Opening Day roster. The Pirates felt sending Griffin to Triple A offered a reset. It did, Griffin said. He got back to having fun, back to the basics and back to squaring up baseballs. On Monday, Nutting met with general manager Ben Cherington. Nutting said he asked a simple question of Cherington: Is Griffin going to make us better right now? Cherington believed he would. Even as Griffin’s growth as a bat will take time, his defense represents an immediate improvement. “So, pulling him up early and now made sense,” Nutting said. Coaches and teammates rave about Griffin’s maturity. There’s an inherent weightiness to the label of top prospect. Griffin will likely soon lose prospect status. His reign as baseball’s No. 1 prospect will be brief. He will not miss it. Yet, Griffin does not shy away from great expectations. When asked about drawing comparisons to baseball greats, like Cal Ripken Jr., Griffin replied that those players were blessed with talent, but it was because of their hard work that they are remembered. “That’s the path I’m trying to take,” he said. “Today is the first day of kind of carving out a legacy that I want to build.” The Pirates have not had a prospect like Griffin before. Their only All-Star shortstops of the past 50 years are Jack Wilson and Jay Bell. Very few players produce as rookies like they will in their prime. Griffin will, undoubtedly, struggle offensively at times. He is prone to chasing. The Pirates will make efforts to reduce the pressure placed upon Griffin as he adjusts to major-league pitching. In his debut, Griffin batted seventh. “I get to come in here and just be a piece of this puzzle,” he said. “If we were a different team in a different situation, it might be better for him to spend another year in Triple A,” Nutting said. “We’re really trying hard to find the balance between what’s most fair and best for him and the short-term need that we have right now. ‘26 is an important year for the Pirates. I think it’s a foot-on-the-gas year for us.” Whatever the risk of leaning upon Griffin too early, the potential reward for the Pirates is far greater. That reward? Regularly seeing PNC Park come alive again, like it was for a few hours Friday. Walking in from the bullpen before the game, Pirates starter Mitch Keller and catcher Henry Davis drank in the scene. The building was buzzing. Keller looked at his catcher and said, “‘Hey man, this is what we play for.’” They talked about what it would be like seeing a crowd like that on an October night on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Later, during a pitching change, Kelly overheard the infielders talking about the electricity in the stadium. “Pittsburgh is hungry for a winner,” outfielder Jake Mangum said. Last year, the Pirates lost 91 games despite employing the NL Cy Young Award winner (Skenes). Ownership and the front office spent October identifying the team’s offseason priorities. The needs were clear. The Pirates needed to add offense, in one way or another, and had to add relievers. This winter, Cherington went about acquiring infielder Brandon Lowe, outfielders Ryan O’Hearn and Mangum, designated hitter Marcell Ozuna and relievers Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery. All in all, a good haul. But because the Pirates had been linked to several higher-profile free agents — Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Polanco, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez and Kazuma Okamoto, to name a few — many fans were left with the bitter taste of a winter of unfinished business. Even without a splash signing, the Pirates entered the season with a club-record payroll, estimated by FanGraphs at $105 million. Is there still room for it to grow? “I never like to speculate on what we might do,” Nutting said. “At the same time, I think we’ve (shown) this year that we have a willingness to do everything we can. But it doesn’t always work. We took a very serious run at a different kind of a free agent than we’ve ever taken a run at before, and I was a little surprised and very disappointed we didn’t bring that home. But I’m really glad we learned from it, didn’t get discouraged, rolled through and accelerated.” Nothing has pressed that pedal down like Griffin’s arrival. This provides these Pirates with an opportunity to prove they can sustain winning on their terms. Their urgency is now apparent. The Pirates have engaged Griffin’s camp about a contract extension and are making progress, according to a league source, but nothing has yet been agreed to. On Friday, despite rumors of an agreement swirling, Griffin said, “All I’m going to say is, I want to be a Pirate for a long time. This is a special place, and I’m thankful to be here.” Nutting said in the past the Pirates have tried to identify “high-impact players” who are “not only elite baseball players but also elite human beings” to sign long-term. Griffin, the owner said, has those attributes. The careful wording should not suggest a deal won’t happen. If an extension had been announced before Griffin’s debut, the Pirates would have lost a chance to receive a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick if Griffin wins NL Rookie of the Year or finishes top-three in MVP voting. Answers should grow clearer in the coming days. When Griffin was in fourth grade, he drew his opening day dream. Konnor Griffin drew this in 4th grade. Tomorrow his dream comes true 🥹 📸: @MomOf3KGS pic.twitter.com/PEeK3JM2k5 “Everything was amazing,” he said. “Running onto the field. Hearing my name called. I tried to just be present. Couldn’t really feel my feet much, but tried to be where my feet were and enjoy the moment.” Griffin fielded an easy grounder in the first inning. He turned a double play the next inning. Then came the laser into “Konnor’s Corner.” By the middle of the game, he had dirt on his jersey and felt like a ballplayer again. After the final out, Griffin embraced Lowe, high-fived the incoming outfielders and was pulled aside for a TV interview. Griffin gushed about his debut and a dream come true. Teammates dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. When Griffin finished the interview, he spied a traffic cone sitting in the dirt nearby. He hoisted it over his shoulder and carried it back to the clubhouse. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Stephen J. Nesbitt is a senior MLB writer for The Athletic. He previously wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, covering the Pittsburgh Pirates before moving to an enterprise/features role. He is a University of Michigan graduate. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenjnesbitt. Follow Stephen J. on Twitter @stephenjnesbitt