Konnor Griffin entered the 2026 season, not just as baseball’s number one prospect, but as the best Pittsburgh Pirates prospect in their history. The Bucs have never had a consensus number-one prospect. The 2024 first-round pick tore up minor league pitching in 2025, then was promoted to the Major Leagues on PNC Park Opening Day, and soon after finalized a nine-year extension. Although Griffin didn’t hit the ground running, the breakout we’ve all been waiting for seems to have finally arrived.
Griffin has 114 MLB plate appearances so far in his young big league career. His first 73 saw him bat a meager .182/.247/.242 with a .228 wOBA, and 36 wRC+. This poor stretch to open his career wasn’t just bad luck either. He struggled with his plate discipline. Griffin struck out at a 33.1% clip and put up a contact rate of 69.2%. When he was making contact, he only managed an 86.1 MPH exit velocity and a 9.1% barrel rate. Griffin’s chase rate also came in at 40.8%, leading to a poor 5.5% walk percentage.
However, since turning 20, Griffin has been on fire. His last 41 trips to the dish have yielded a .405/.463/.676 triple-slash, .492 wOBA, and 216 wRC+. Of his 15 hits, five have gone for extra bases. That includes two doubles, a triple, and two home runs. Griffin’s recent performance isn’t fueled by luck either.
Griffin has put up a .417 xwOBA in this time, which is the second best among shortstops, surpassed by just Houston Astros’ star infielder Carlos Correa. Griffin has started to rip the cover off the ball. His exit velocity is now clocking in at 92.3 MPH. More hard-hit baseballs have led to an improved barrel rate of 10.8%. Griffin has become much more patient, with his chase rate now sitting at a much more workable 31.2%. His walk rate in this short stretch has improved to 9.8%. There are still questions about his ability to make contact, given his contact percentage sits at 67.1%. However, most of that stems from his out-of-zone contact rate falling from 46.8% before his birthday to an unsustainable 25% since his birthday. Meanwhile, his in-zone contact percentage has risen from 85.7% to 89.1%.
Griffin has also made some adjustments in his mechanics. For one, he has changed his stance in the box. The young shortstop closed off his stance from six degrees open through the 23rd, to only one degree open since. Griffin is also standing slightly further off the plate. Before his birthday, he stood about 29.9 inches off the plate on average. Now, he stands 31.6 inches off the plate.
Griffin’s ideal attack angle has also greatly increased. He only reached his ideal attack angle on his swings just 44.8% of the time through April 23. Since then, he has upped that to 51.6%. Griffin also struggled getting behind the plate. His average intercept point prior to his birthday was 3.9 inches in front of the plate. However, now his intercept point is just 0.9 inches in front of the dish. Getting so far out in front of the plate led to Griffin pulling the ball far too often. Now, he has a much more all-fields approach.
Griffin making adjustments so quickly is very impressive. He just turned 20 and is making changes to MLB pitching like a veteran. It bodes very well for his long-term future in the Major Leagues if he is able to make fixes on the fly and implement them effectively. With how well he currently looks in the box, his first handful of games where he struggled look more like an adjustment period, and his production over the last week and a half is the real deal.
