{"id":591525,"date":"2026-02-25T05:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/591525\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T05:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:20:16","slug":"pirates-prospect-konnor-griffin-goes-deep-twice-including-a-shot-off-red-sox-newcomer-ranger-suarez-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/591525\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates prospect Konnor Griffin goes deep twice, including a shot off Red Sox newcomer Ranger Suarez"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Konnor Griffin, the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019<\/a> latest can\u2019t-miss prospect, didn\u2019t miss against the Boston Red Sox and newcomer Ranger Suarez on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old shortstop, considered the top prospect in baseball, hit a pair of homers in Pittsburgh\u2019s 16-7 Grapefruit League win over the Red Sox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Griffin took a pitch from Suarez, who signed a five-year, $130-million deal<\/a> with Boston in January after two standout seasons in Philadelphia, over the left-field wall for a two-run homer in the second inning. Griffin did it again two innings later, turning on a two-strike pitch from Seth Martinez and sending it 440 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot some good swings off, so kind of smoked them,\u201d Griffin told reporters afterward.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-4 Griffin, who sprinted through the lower levels of Pittsburgh\u2019s farm system last season, began the day searching for his first hit of the spring and ended it with four RBIs and a pair of swings that offered a flash of his potential.<\/p>\n

Griffin acknowledged that having success against two proven major league pitchers \u2014 Suarez was an All-Star in 2024 and Martinez has appeared in over 100 games over the last five seasons \u2014 was \u201cspecial\u201d but added he was trying to stay in the moment and not get caught up in who he was facing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI stepped in the box and I was ready to compete,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t worrying about who was on the mound. I was just worrying about what his stuff was and how I could have the best approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin has tried to keep his head down while the buzz around him has built, just as reigning National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes<\/a> did during his first spring training with the Pirates two years ago. Skenes began the 2024 season in the minors before making his big league debut in May.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a chance Griffin might not have to wait that long. The left side of the Pirates\u2019 infield is a question mark. Jared Triolo is an excellent defender who can play either third or short and Nick Gonzales is also in the mix. Neither, however, has the potential at the plate that Griffin offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely going to hit,\u201d Pirates pitcher Carmen Mzlodzinski told reporters. \u201cThere\u2019s not a whole lot of swings you see like that, especially from a teenager. The best way to say it is his swing stays in the zone forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Suarez, who allowed two runs on three hits with a pair of strikeouts in 1 2\/3 innings, tipped his cap to the young player who was all of 12 when Suarez made his major league debut with the Phillies in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re the top prospect in the game, people expect that from you,\u201d Suarez said through an interpreter. \u201cHe did that today, and I wasn\u2019t surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez said he felt good about his performance overall as he begins to ramp up his workload ahead of the World Baseball Classic, where he will pitch for his native Venezuela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Konnor Griffin, the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 latest can\u2019t-miss prospect, didn\u2019t miss against the Boston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4635,7884,9545,4,10608,877,144,40,64,90,89,2543,24552,4767],"class_list":{"0":"post-591525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-grapefruit-league","13":"tag-jared-triolo","14":"tag-konnor-griffin","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nick-gonzales","17":"tag-paul-skenes","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-phillies","20":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","21":"tag-ranger-suarez","22":"tag-red-sox","23":"tag-redsox","24":"tag-seth-martinez","25":"tag-top-prospect"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116129590494639731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}