{"id":636604,"date":"2026-03-22T04:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/636604\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:30:19","slug":"konnor-griffin-sent-to-minors-pirates-top-prospect-doesnt-make-big-league-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/636604\/","title":{"rendered":"Konnor Griffin sent to minors: Pirates&#8217; top prospect doesn&#8217;t make big league roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Article-featuredImageImg\" alt=\"konnor-griffin-imagn.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/konnor-griffin-imagn.png\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"433\" width=\"770\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/teams\/PIT\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pirates<\/a> assigned shortstop <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/players\/29426038\/konnor-griffin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Konnor Griffin<\/a> to minor-league camp following Saturday&#8217;s game, the ballclub announced via press release. Griffin, 19, is considered by many to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/mlb-opening-day-rosters-prospects-konnor-griffin-jj-wetherholt-carson-benge-justin-crawford-ryan-waldschmidt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the top prospect in all of baseball<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Griffin was the ninth overall pick in the 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/cbssports.com\/mlb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MLB<\/a> draft out of high school and reached Double-A last season, though only for 21 games. He hit .337\/.418\/.542 in those games and, in 122 minor-league games total last season, hit .333\/.415\/.527 with 23 doubles, four triples, 21 homers, 94 RBI, 117 runs and 65 stolen bases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He flashed some power this spring with the Pirates. Here&#8217;s a two-homer game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The youngster ended up with a double, four home runs and nine RBI in his 41 at-bats of MLB spring action. Alas, he only hit .171 with a .261 on-base percentage. It would&#8217;ve been really fun for him to break camp with the Pirates, but given his lack of experience past A ball, he probably needed to terrorize pitchers in spring training.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/news\/mlb-breakout-candidates-2026-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>MLB breakout candidates: Oft-injured pitchers, post-hype prospects and more players poised for a big 2026<\/p>\n<p>\n                    Mike Axisa                <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" alt=\"MLB breakout candidates: Oft-injured pitchers, post-hype prospects and more players poised for a big 2026\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774153819_873_weathers-getty.png\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"152\" width=\"270\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Griffin is likely ticketed for Triple-A Indianapolis to start the season, but he might not be there long. If he gets off to a strong start and the Pirates are playing good baseball, they&#8217;ll surely look to take advantage of the momentum and bring him up to the big club.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates are now likely to go with <a class=\"Annotation-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/mlb\/players\/3167983\/nick-gonzales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Gonzales<\/a> at shortstop when their season begins on March 26 against the Mets in New York. Still, keep your eyes on Griffin&#8217;s minor-league stat line early in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagn Images The Pirates assigned shortstop Konnor Griffin to minor-league camp following Saturday&#8217;s game, the ballclub announced via&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,9545,2291,4,1586,18513,10608,81459,60829,64,81184],"class_list":["post-636604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-draft","tag-baseball","tag-konnor-griffin","tag-major-league-baseball-draft","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft","tag-mlb-opening-day","tag-nick-gonzales","tag-pirates-opening-day-roster","tag-pirates-roster","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-when-is-mlb-opening-day"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116270952947322595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636604","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=636604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}