[Heyman, NY Post] The Pittsburgh Pirates have offered Konnor Griffin the biggest deal ever for no MLB service time. $100M+ and has a chance to get done.

45 comments

  1. As someone who absolutely supported deals like Merrill and Tatis, which were both after one year of service time and are now both incredibly team friendly (seriously, the Tatis deal doesn’t get mentioned enough for how team friendly it is)…

    This makes me feel like it’s a bad idea for PIT. The kid should have to prove that he can do it at the major league level at least a little bit, right?

    EDIT: To be clear, I mean this is potentially a bad deal for PIT, not a bad deal in general. Bob Nutting giving up this money and if it turns out to be a waste? He’ll never spend another cent.

  3. You’d have to be really confident in your abilities (and health) to say no to $100,000,000+ guaranteed before your rookie year.

  4. I’m no GM but I would never give a 19 year old kid a contract like this. I could see doing this for a young guy who’s basically already MLB level like JJ Wetherholt or Colt Emerson, but Konnor Griffin hasn’t even played AAA ball yet.

  5. That didnt work out too well for the Phillies (did for Scott Kingery’s bank account though).

    Higher pedigree though so give the Pittsburgh fans something to cheer for.

  6. I guess if anything he already has a $6.5 signing bonus from the Pirates so he’s at a good starting point.

    I’m not sure what the average career earnings of position players to debut before 20 is but I’d also guess it’s a lot higher than most people think.

  8. Ok “Pittsburgh Pirates” who are you really and what did you do to Bob Nutting

  9. Granted its spring training but I have not seen a more talented 19 year old since A-Rod. $100 mill will be a bargain after this year

  10. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IM SO SICK OF BEING AWFUL I DONT EVEN CARE IF HE’S AVERAGE

  13. Skenes has his eyes on a Yankees or Dodgers hat. I could tell as soon as I spoke to him

  15. Guess it’s a good thing, but why won’t they spend big money on proven players? Seems risky even on a so called can’t miss prospect.

  16. Has a deal like this EVER worked out? Off the top of my head, Colt Keith, Jon Singleton, and Scott Kingery did deals like this and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

  18. Dear Lord Jesus… I don’t ask for much, but… please, I’m begging you. Just this one thing. And maybe another if you have time to convince Paul Skenes to sign long term.

  25. They would be far better off to wait until a week into the season to sign him. If this deal finishes before the season starts, he will not be eligible to earn PPI for the Pirates.

  28. The Pirates don’t have $100 million do the jokes on him when the check bounces.

  29. I’m very curious what the actual details of the deal are. If it’s something like what Chourio signed with the Brewers, where it is mostly guaranteed and has just a two team options are the back-end where the team savings really are, that’s probably a good deal for him to take.

  30. Look I can get why a player wants to gamble, the M’s for example offered both Kelenic and Julio 100m dollar contracts before they even played a game. Jarred Kelenic is kicking water coolers for not accepting it, Julio bet on himself and now has the chance to make 300 million if he becomes the MVP player he is betting himself on becoming. Evan White is very thankful to sign a very team friendly contract that the MLBPA told him not to sign and advised him against taking. Michael Harris II is likely thankful he signed a very “team friendly” contract as well.

    Teams are not spending in free agency unless you’re an elite tier talent and even then it’s about about 5 teams willing to throw out stupid amounts of money. Taking a team friendly contract in the 2000s/2010s would be dumb because there was always a team out there willing to overspend on a player about to turn 30. In the 2020’s most teams (lol Angels and Rockies) have become wise when it comes to spending in free agency.

  35. I think this would be the dumbest thing for Griffin to do. I firmly believe the next CBA is going to improve the fortunes of younger players such that he’d probably leave a large amount on the table by giving up whatever’s going to happen to free agency and early contracts very soon.

    The Pirates aren’t doing this just to be generous, they know that this may be their only opportunity to sign him to anything and the simple thought is 100m in the hand is worth 600m in the bush or whatever, but I believe the Pirates wouldn’t be offering anything if there wasn’t an understanding of what owners are willing to concede in CBA negotiaions and whatever expectations teams are going to have to face for whatever floor they’re willing to accept in order to get their cap.

    He’ll probably take it because 100m guaranteed sure is a lot of money, but my thoughts about the next CBA is that we’ll see arbitration reform or eliminated in favor of restricted free agency where players can get market rate or close to it after a much shorter amount of service time so that teams have an out to spend up to the floor that’s inevitably coming with the cap. Getting 13m/year in 6-8 years with a new CBA that almost definitely will push up the lower salaries is making a gamble that I don’t like. I’d always go the over-confident route and say there’s a really good shot he’ll be a top hitter and worth way more than 13m in free agency as well as 2-3 years of arbitration, and honestly it should be illegal for a team to offer this kind of wage suppression and take advantage of a kid who would also be extremely dumb to not take a gigantic pile of cash that protects him from a major injury that could derail his entire career and all that.

  37. I can’t see the article without a subscription. Does it mention years on that deal? Giving the owner’s reputation, my too good to be true sensors are wondering if it’s something like 12 years. So he’ll be looking for his first free agent contract in his 30s. If he is one of the next annual top five-ten MVP candidate type player, that’s a lot of money he’d be losing out on by not hitting free agency earlier.

  39. Despite the offer, I would bet good money there was bad news attached to this offer

    Take it and you’re in the bigs

    Reject it and we will preserve your rookie status until next season.

    I assume he’ll take some version of the deal but I’ve said it all winter, pirates will never let him break camp without a contract

  40. kinda seems like he’s trying to get ahead of the salary floor, so he doesn’t have to end up paying for complete random’s to not get tax’d.

  42. He will definitely be advised not to take it if he’s confident he’ll be a 300mil player. That contract is probably a 10 year offer. Who took these long term deals for the Pirates in past years? Jose Tabata, Gregory Polanco, and KeBryan Hayes. Guys who knew their limits. Pittsburgh fans should hope he doesn’t take it. There’s a hunger and sense of urgency that disappears sometimes. We have him for at least six years no matter what.

  45. Given Nutting’s propensity to squeeze a nickel ’til the buffalo shits, no way this is happening.

Leave a Reply