{"id":795729,"date":"2026-09-03T16:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/795729\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:48:18","slug":"pirates-rookie-konnor-griffin-eyes-friday-return-from-60-day-il-pain-free-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/795729\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin eyes Friday return from 60-day IL, pain-free at last"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Konnor Griffin<\/a> is ready to get back to work.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> rookie shortstop said Thursday that he feels good and is hopeful of being activated off the 60-day injured list on Friday when Pittsburgh opens a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Griffin hasn’t played since early July due to an issue with the knuckle on the ring finger of his left hand. Griffin wore a splint for about six weeks and has played a handful of games while on a rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been driving me nuts watching the games on my phone,\u201d said Griffin, who signed a massive contract extension in April shortly after making his debut. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun to finally be back in there competing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pirates have fallen off the pace in the National League playoff race in Griffin’s absence. Pittsburgh entered Thursday’s game against San Francisco 5 1\/2 games back of the final wild card spot.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh remains intent on having Griffin return this season. The team says the risk of re-injury is small and it’s important to get him more experience during the nascent stage of his career. <\/p>\n

Griffin has been electric at times. He’s hitting .276 with five homers, 25 RBIs and 20 stolen bases in 59 games during a season that’s been disrupted by multiple trips to the injured list.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just cool to see how my body has been able to overcome these injuries,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s a good sign for me. I\u2019m pumped to be back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, Griffin is pain-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did some grip strength testing,\u201d he said. \u201cThose numbers were actually a lot higher than they should have been, which was a good sign for me. That gave me a lot of confidence, squeezing a bat, squeezing a glove wasn\u2019t gonna be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB<\/a> coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Konnor Griffin is ready to get back to work. The Pittsburgh Pirates rookie shortstop said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,9545,56,19,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":["post-795729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-konnor-griffin","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117208134660828321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795729","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=795729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}