Insider Floats Possibility of Pirates Sending Konnor Griffin to Triple-A
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a great start to the 2026 campaign, something I expected coming into the year. I know that people like to bash on the Pirates for whatever reason, but this is a completely different team than we've seen in recent years. Pittsburgh is as legit as it gets on the mound, and if this offense continues to do what it can, there's reason to believe that we can see a very special year out of this group.
Now, to say there haven't been some tough moments or certain guys not playing well would be unfair, including top prospect Konnor Griffin. Only 19 years old, there were expected to be some learning curves for Griffin when he came up. Hitting .
152 with 12 strikeouts in 33 at-bats, Griffin is learning that Major League Baseball is very difficult. No matter how much talent a young man has, there's always a growing stage in this league. I highly doubt that the Pirates would ever consider sending him down, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic recently had some thoughts on that possibly happening.
"If they believe he's getting overwhelmed ... yes, at that point, they can and will send him down," Rosenthal said. "But they're not there yet.
He's terrific defensively, as we've seen, and he should be given the chance to figure it out. If he doesn't, if this continues, OK, you take a deep breath, you let him go back to the minors, get his feet back on the ground, and then go from there. " I understand what Rosenthal was trying to say here, as we can't count anything out, but I just don't see how there would be any good in sending Griffin down.