The Pirates Got a Pricey Off-Season Makeover — But What About a Shortstop?

PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO

Even the Pirates acknowledge they’re different this season.

By the end of spring training, which has commenced this week in Bradenton, Fla., we may have a much better idea as to just how different an organization they’ve become.

“From a spring training perspective and just thinking about the players we’ll have in camp, it’s probably the deepest, most-talented group we’ve had,” General Manager Ben Cherington assessed.

That’s a low bar given the previous groups Cherington assembled managed to go a combined 365-505, for a winning percentage of .420, in the first six seasons Cherington generally managed.

The difference this time is bats.

The offensively-starved Bucs finally added three of those this offseason. And if Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna can do what they have an established track record of doing — hit the ball — the Pirates might be on to something.

It’s going to cost owner Bob Nutting north of $100 million to find out, another low bar to surpass, but at the same time a most un-Nutting-like commitment in terms of allocating resources to build the roster.

Yet despite the by-Pirates-standards pricey offseason makeover, they still don’t have a shortstop.

Or do they?

Konnor Griffin, the ninth-overall pick in the 2024 draft, has arrived in Bradenton having recently been christened by longtime analyst Keith Law of The Athletic as “the most exciting prospect in the minors since Mike Trout.”

Griffin, 19, has yet to play at baseball’s highest minor-league level, Class AAA.

But given that he belted a combined 21 home runs, drove in 94 runs, swiped 65 bases and hit .333 last season playing for Bradenton, Greensboro and Altoona while rapidly ascending the minor-league ladder, a stint in Class AAA may be a mere formality.

That being the case, Griffin should be given every opportunity to win the everyday shortstop job at the Major League level in spring training.

And if he does that, the Pirates should give him the job rather than wait until May or June or whenever it’s deemed financially feasible to bring him up.

If that starts his clock toward eventual arbitration and free agency quicker than the Pirates would prefer, well, that, too, should be attributed as the cost of doing business when your business is to win.

Now that they’re spending money (relatively speaking), why not go all-in by actually playing the best players?

Griffin isn’t one of those yet.

But he’s already begun turning heads at Pirate City, as Griffin did on Monday when he faced none other than Paul Skenes in batting practice.

PHOTO BY HARRISON BARDEN/PITTSBURGH PIRATES

“That was fascinating,” manager Don Kelly reported. “It was really cool. That’s a tough at-bat for Konnor. Paul got him on three fastballs the one time and then Konnor came back and made a good adjustment and stayed on a slider and hit a line drive to left.

“It was really cool to see those two going at it.”

Skenes, likewise, is impressed.

“I think it’s funny that everything I see of him has to clarify that he’s 19 years old, because you wouldn’t think that,” Skenes told reporters in Bradenton on Wednesday. “Super mature, super professional in how he goes about his business. Talking to him, it doesn’t say ’19 year old’ when you interact with him.

“It’s gonna be fun. I’m excited to see his development and excited to have him help us win a lot of games in Pittsburgh this year.”

The best-case scenario would be Griffin doing that in New York first, when the Pirates open the season on March 26 against the Mets.

As high as the vibes are now, as much long-absent respect as the Pirates are getting in the industry for how they conducted their off-season business, imagine the excitement and the optimism and the sense of possibility if Griffin is in the lineup when they start playing ball for keeps.

Imagine Skenes-like buzz and Skenes-like anticipation every day, not just when it’s Skenes’ turn in the rotation.

Starting in late March we may not have to, provided Griffin does his part this spring and the Pirates, in turn, are prepared to take their new way of doing business all the way.