{"id":680428,"date":"2026-04-21T16:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680428\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:03:31","slug":"pirates-manager-takes-hard-stance-on-konnor-griffin-demotion-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680428\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Manager Takes Hard Stance On Konnor Griffin Demotion Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pirates Manager Takes Hard Stance On Konnor Griffin Demotion Rumors<\/a> originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh<\/a>. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Konnor Griffin’s highly anticipated MLB career<\/a> hasn’t gotten off to a great start at the plate.<\/p>\n

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Through his first\u00a016 games, the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> rookie is batting just .218\/.290\/.291 with no home runs,\u00a018 strikeouts and\u00a012 hits. With 0.0 WAR, he’s been the definition of replacement level.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, some are wondering if the Pirates rushed the\u00a019-year-old shortstop to the Major Leagues too quickly, especially given his lack of minor league experience. Is there a chance that Griffin could be benched or sent down soon if his disappointing start continues, similar to Hunter Barco<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Don Kelly<\/a> doesn’t think so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know at what point that would enter the discussion,\u201d Kelly told Ken Rosenthal<\/a> last Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s not even in the realm of possibility right now. He\u2019s going to be up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Griffin has struggled offensively, he’s shown signs of progress with five hits and three RBI over his last four games. He’s also playing good defense and running the bases well, stealing four bags without getting caught.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing great, honestly,\u201d Pittsburgh’s manager added. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a 19-year-old kid who has, what, five games above Double A? He\u2019s learning. We know there\u2019s going to be a lot of development still in the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin is still figuring things out and adjusting to the Major Leagues, and that typically doesn’t happen overnight. Young players often require patience<\/a>, even the best prospects in baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More MLB:\u00a0Soaring Pirates Shockingly Claim Elite Spot In 2026 MLB Power Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pirates Manager Takes Hard Stance On Konnor Griffin Demotion Rumors originally appeared on SportsNet Pittsburgh. Add SportsNet Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,6452,15155,4748,9545,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-680428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-don-kelly","10":"tag-hunter-barco","11":"tag-ken-rosenthal","12":"tag-konnor-griffin","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-pirates","15":"tag-pittsburgh","16":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","17":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116443545790783403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680428","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=680428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}