{"id":662543,"date":"2026-04-04T10:38:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662543\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:38:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:38:31","slug":"pirates-to-call-up-konnor-griffin-reportedly-working-to-finalize-9-year-140m-deal-with-the-no-1-overall-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662543\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates to call up Konnor Griffin, reportedly working to finalize 9-year, $140M deal with the No. 1 overall prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to give their home fans something to cheer about for the team\u2019s 2026 home opener. The Pirates will call up shortstop Konnor Griffin, widely considered the best prospect in baseball, prior to Friday\u2019s game against the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move was announced hours before the team reportedly agreed to a record-breaking, nine-year, $140 million deal<\/a> with Griffin, per ESPN. That deal still needs to be finalized<\/a>, according to reports.<\/p>\n

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The deal \u2014 if signed \u2014 secures Griffin the largest extension ever for a player who has not made his major-league debut. It breaks the record just set by Seattle Mariners prospect Colt Emerson, who signed an eight-year, $95 million extension on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pirates seemingly confirmed Griffin\u2019s promotion Thursday, posting a video of him with the words \u201cOpening Debut.\u201d The team has yet to confirm Griffin\u2019s reported extension.<\/p>\n

After being selected by the Pirates in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft, Griffin immediately established himself as a prospect worth monitoring. He appeared on all major top-100 lists heading into the 2025 season, though he was considered a mid-to-late prospect at the time.<\/p>\n

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A transcendent 2025 season caused Griffin to shoot all the way up to the game\u2019s No. 1 overall prospect, according to Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com, entering the 2026 season. He hit .333\/.415\/.527 across three levels last year, eventually reaching Double-A in his first professional season.<\/p>\n

Griffin, 19, entered 2026 with a shot to make the Pirates\u2019 roster out of spring training. But while he produced some impressive highlights<\/a>, he struggled overall, hitting just .171 in 41 at-bats. Because of that, the team assigned him to Triple-A to start the year.<\/p>\n

Five games in Triple-A have led the Pirates to reconsider that decision. Griffin hit .438 with three doubles and five walks to open the season. That was apparently all the evidence the team needed to bring him up to the majors.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s an ideal time for the Pirates to make the move. After opening the 2026 season with six consecutive road games, they will host their home opener on Friday. Griffin, who will presumably be in the starting lineup, should take the field to raucous applause from Pirates fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to give their home fans something to cheer about for the team\u2019s 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[47,5,9545,2291,4,1586,64,994,65],"class_list":{"0":"post-662543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-konnor-griffin","11":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-draft","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-prospect","16":"tag-seattle-mariners"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116346013591901818","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662543","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=662543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}