There isn’t a single Pittsburgh Pirates fan who wouldn’t be thrilled to see Konnor Griffin open the year as the Bucs’ starting shortstop. He is the number one prospect in all of baseball, and for a good reason. Griffin put up a .941 OPS, .437 wOBA, and 165 wRC+ across three levels of the minor leagues in 2025. He also went yard 21 times, stole 65 bases, and flashed impressive defense at shortstop. However, Pittsburgh sports reporter Andrew Filliponi recently quoted insider Andrew Mackey, who said the Bucs may start Griffin at Triple-A for the most ridiculous reason possible.

https://x.com/ThePoniExpress/status/2029684000847970581

For… Batting Average?

This is insane for multiple reasons. The first is batting average. It’s not 1980 anymore; it’s 2026. Major League Baseball teams do not value batting average like that anymore, especially for making roster decisions of this magnitude. What makes it even more ridiculous is that it’s Spring Training’s batting average. Griffin has just 15 plate appearances in Spring Training. For one, it’s way too small a sample size to make a declaration on Griffin’s bottom-line performance, let alone using just batting average. All three of Griffin’s hits this spring have been home runs. He is slugging .857. That gives him a 1.124 OPS in the small sample size.

Obviously, the next reason is that we’re talking about Spring Training statistics. Spring Training sample sizes are almost always unreliable. Spring Training stats began getting tracked in 2006. Since then, the top five hitters for the Pirates in terms of batting average (min. 50 plate appearances) are Michael Ryan, Ronny Paulino, Matt Hague, Lyle Overbay, and Luis Rivas. They all batted over .360 with the Pirates in Spring Training. The third reason is that Griffin has been absolutely ripping the cover off the ball in spring. This is even more important than his batting average in the pre-season. He has seven batted balls over 100 MPH. The most in the league as of now is 11, held by Jose Fernandez of the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

What’s the True Intention Behind This?

The question is, will this truly be the route the Pirates take with Griffin? If he gets sent down, it won’t be because of his batting average. You can criticize the Pirates all you want, but they aren’t so far behind the curb they’re still using batting average as one of their go-to measuring sticks for roster decisions. The Pirates may send him down for service-time reasons, or because he has barely played above High-A, both of which hold more water than reasons related to his batting average.

So why would the Pirates say this if they have better reasons to send him to Triple-A to start 2026? It could be for leverage reasons. The Pirates and Griffin are interested in an extension (and hopefully they hammer one out before Opening Day). Any leverage in negotiations is important for either side. This could be like when Bryan Reynolds asked for a trade months before they agreed upon an extension. It’s very possible that getting traded was not a top priority for Reynolds or his agent, but rather used this as a negotiating tactic. 

Even if this is a negotiating tactic by the Pirates, it is still a ridiculous reason, nonetheless. Using batting average as a measuring stick in nearly any context by a MLB team is beyond questionable. Teams know much better than not to use batting average to evaluate players, let alone in small Spring Training sample sizes.

 

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