By Billy Watkins
Pittsburgh Pirates’ brass showed what they thought of Konnor Griffin’s potential when he was the ninth player taken in the 2024 Major League draft.
They also paid the former Jackson Prep star a $6.5 million signing bonus — approximately $350,000 more than the slotted amount for a No. 9 pick.
He has shown why the past two months during his first spring training, part of it with the big-league club.
In his first professional game — yes, with the Major League team — Griffin drove in what proved to be the winning run with a single to right field. A couple of moments later, he went first to third on a weak single by Abraham Gutierrez that the right fielder was able to charge and make a good throw to third. Griffin slid in safely.
Afterward, Pirates manager Derek Shelton was ecstatic when asked about Griffin’s hit and display of speed.
“Whew! That’s an athletic human being right there,” Shelton said. “It was really cool to see a guy get his first Major League spring training hit. Then I look up on the scoreboard and it said (he was born in) 2006. I’m like, ‘Geez!’ Made me feel old.
“To get his first hit and then go first to third like that, it was a culmination of why we took him when we did.”
It wasn’t his only “wow!” moment.
He made a terrific sliding catch in the left- center field gap that was the talk postgame among the media covering the team.
And perhaps his personal favorite so far: Griffin, who will turn 19 near the end of April, hit a go-ahead home run to right-center in the top of the ninth inning off Brandon Young.
Only bad thing was, Griffin didn’t get to enjoy it right away.
“I was digging for (a triple) and I didn’t know it had gone out until I saw the umpire give the home run signal,” Griffin told the media postgame.
He’s displayed his hitting ability, power, defensive range, and speed that was clocked at 4.35 in the 40-yard dash at an MLB combine in 2024. His arm is so lively, he also played some games at shortstop this spring and the Pirates consider pitching a “fallback” position for him.
It’s astounding to think that he was playing high school ball this time last year and compiling crazy numbers: .559 batting average, 76 runs scored, 83 stolen bases, 39 RBIs, nine home runs. He was chosen One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard metro player of the year.
On March 5, Griffin was eventually sent to minor league Class A Bradenton, but he continued to play some games for the big-league team. He hasn’t been informed where he will start the regular season, but it will likely be either Bradenton or the or the High-A club in Greensboro, N.C.
In four games this week, Griffin has seven hits, two triples and eight stolen bases.
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During a recent conversation with Konnor’s dad, Kevin, I was curious about how he and wife Kim found out about his home run.
“We actually had a game,” said Kevin, who is head softball coach of 14th-ranked Belhaven University. “Afterward, I was watching the Pirates’ game on the streaming app, but I wasn’t caught up to real time. I got a call from Kim and she was going wild. I figured something good happened.
“Then she said, ‘I’m in tears’ and I thought somebody had gotten hurt.”
She finally told him Konnor had homered.
So what about the home run ball?
“Konnor actually has it,” Kevin said. “Somebody from the Orioles went and got it, which was really nice of them. Knowing Konnor, he just tossed it in one of his duffle bags somewhere.”
Kevin and Kim are understandably less nonchalant about their son’s start to pro baseball.
“It kinda blows my mind,” Kevin said. “When your child is growing up, you always have those dreams for him to play in the big leagues. I really didn’t believe it until his junior year and 68 pro scouts were there for his opening game at Prep. They showed up two-and-a-half hours before the game, crowding around the batting cage.
“I always emphasized to him the importance of going over and shaking hands with a scout who took the time to come watch him play. Well, that night he was exhausted after shaking 68 hands.
“He seems really happy. This has been his dream for a while. He said the other day he gets lonely at times, not seeing familiar faces, family faces. FaceTime has really helped. He talks to me or Kim every night. One night he’ll call Kim the next night he calls me.
“I think he’s ready for this. He understands that baseball is more of a game of failure than success. He’s learned to handle the ups and downs. I think he has things in perspective, especially under the scrutiny he’s been under.”
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Scouts will always nitpick. That’s their job. Some thought Griffin had a hitch in his swing that would make him vulnerable to big-league fastballs.
Konnor and Kevin went to work on that before spring training and the tweaking has continued with the Pirates. His swing now is shorter, more straight to the ball.
Konnor told Alex Stumpf of mlb.com on March 5: “You’ve got to be short and quick at the pro level. You can’t be too long. I feel like I’m in a good spot right now.”
Teammates have been helpful.
“Konnor is the first high school kid who has ever been invited to big-league spring training, so some veterans could have taken the attitude that ‘I never got to do that.’ But it’s been just the opposite.
“(Pitcher) Paul Skenes had been good to him. Henry Davis, the first-round pick three years ago, has been good. As a catcher, Nick has always helped Konnor be ready for an at-bat, giving him scouting reports on pitchers. Adam Frazier, who played at Mississippi State, has talked to him some. So has Nick Yorke, who got called up late last year.”
I had to ask: Has Konnor splurged for anything?
“Only thing he’s bought is a Ford Bronco Raptor,” Kevin said. “I figure after driving a 2011 Volvo during high school he deserved it. And he didn’t even have to touch his bonus money. He used the money he’s received from four different baseball card companies to pay for it.”
It seems Konnor’s biggest struggle this spring has been trying to grow a mustache. It’s coming along. Slowly.
“I think he’s trying to fit in and not look 18 years old,” Kevin laughed.
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