Konnor Griffin Heads Back to IL With Finger Injury
For the second time in his four-month-old major league career, Konnor Griffin is headed to the injured list. On June 26, the Pirates shortstop returned from a month-long IL stint due to a low-grade flexor strain in his right forearm. He didn’t miss a beat, running a 115 wRC+ and recording four two-hit games in an eight-game span.
But the triumphant return was short-lived. On Sunday’s game against the Nationals, Griffin hurt his glove hand trying to make a diving stop on a Keibert Ruiz grounder up the middle. He told reporters after the game that he was fine, but imaging revealed a tear in the sagittal band of his left ring finger. The team expects him to miss eight to 10 weeks, which would put him on track for a return around early September. This is a major bummer for Griffin, whose career is off to a brilliant, but sputtering start. It’s a major bummer for the Pirates, who sit just three games out of the final Wild Card spot. And it’s a bummer for baseball, as Griffin is one of the game’s most exciting and promising young players.
I will spare you a scouting report because it’s been barely a month since Eric Longenhagen published the Pirates Top Prospects list. Glowing would be far too weak a word for his writeup of Griffin, the top overall prospect in the game. Descriptors used included good, really good, best, plus, supreme, blazing, turbocharged, franchise-altering, and, of course, muscular. Comps included Bobby Witt Jr., Hanley Ramirez, and Carlos Correa. Eric called Griffin “one of the top handful of prospects ever evaluated during the current era of FanGraphs scouting.” You get the picture. Griffin is an electric phenom, the ninth overall pick in the 2024 draft. He ran a 165 wRC+ across three levels in 2025, then spent just five games in the minors this year before earning a promotion and a nine-year contract extension.
Griffin struggled after his promotion, batting .182 with a 35 wRC+ across his first 19 games. But facing the Brewers on April 24 – his 20th birthday – he knocked his first home run and turned in the first three-hit game of his career. He notched two hits the next day and was off to the races. Since he turned 20, Griffin has batted .314 and run a 130 wRC+, smacking five home runs and tallying 50 hits in 40 games. It turns out that speeding to the majors as the top prospect in baseball and then struggling a bit over his first 19 games was Griffin’s version of being an awkward teenager. We should all be so lucky. His overall wRC+ is back above the league average at 102. He’s already stolen 20 bases, and though he’s played in just 59 total games, his 5.8 baserunning runs is the best mark in all of baseball. Statcast’s FRV has graded Griffin’s defense poorly, but both DRS and DRP see him as above average so far.
Put it all together, and Griffin has 1.2 WAR over 59 games, a 3.3-win pace over 162 games. If you want to get reckless, you could also note that if we begin on his birthday, he’s been on an 8.1-win pace. It’s a remarkable start, and if not for these injuries, Griffin would be up at the top of the rookie leaderboards next to two other exciting young infielders in JJ Wetherholt and Kevin McGonigle.
Even now, it seems like Griffin has plenty of room to figure things out. He has a ghastly 39% chase rate, more than 10 percentage points higher than he posted at any point in the minors. As a result, his walk and strikeout rates leave much to be desired. And although his bat speed grades out as fantastic, his hard-hit rate and average exit velocity are well below the league average. That’s not usually how it goes, and it seems safe to assume that Griffin will find more hard contact as he continues to mature and adjust to big league stuff.
As frustrating as it is that Griffin is returning to the IL, it’s a relief to see that the Pirates are again making sure to give him time to heal fully, especially because hand injuries are notoriously tricky. “There was a bunch of options that were discussed and presented to Konnor and team through the physicians,” Pirates Director of Sports Medicine Todd Tomczyk told reporters. “The best choice is non-operative care, the six weeks of splint and immobilization to make sure that this can properly heal and that it can return to the high function.” Still, it hurts.
The Pirates could certainly use a star shortstop right about now. As Kiri Oler detailed yesterday, Paul Skenes has struggled to a 5.36 ERA over his past nine starts. Oneil Cruz has been on the IL for nearly a month with a broken left hand, and Spencer Horwitz has been out for two weeks with a hamstring strain. It’s awfully hard to stay in the playoff hunt with your unqualified ace acting up and your starting shortstop, center fielder, and first baseman on the IL. The Pirates’ Playoff Odds have dropped from 62% on June 1 all the way down to 35%. With Griffin out again, Jared Triolo is back to covering shortstop, as he did for most of the last month. Triolo is running a 76 wRC+, but he has a decent glove at short and brings some value on the basepaths. So far this season, that package has allowed him to put up 0.2 WAR, a bit above replacement level. It’s not the worst case scenario for a utility infielder, but it’s a big step down from Griffin.
That’s not to say that there’s no good news in Pittsburgh. First, neither Griffin, Cruz, nor Horwitz is among the team’s top five contributors by WAR. Bryan Reynolds seems to have discovered the fountain of youth, Brandon Lowe and Nick Gonzales are on pace for career years, and Braxton Ashcraft is pacing the pitching staff with 2.9 WAR and a 3.24 ERA. Also, reinforcements may be on the way. On Sunday, GM Ben Cherington said during a radio appearance that both Cruz and Horwitz are progressing well, and the team hopes to have them back not too long after the All-Star break. Also, you have to imagine Skenes will figure things out. Seriously, when’s the last time you read about some bad news for the Pirates on MLB Trade Rumors, and then, right at the end of the article, the author talked about the possibility that the team might look to add at the trade deadline?
Still, I don’t want to give Pirates fans false hope here. They’re missing three crucial players. Griffin won’t be back until well after the trade deadline, and both he and Cruz will be recovering from hand injuries, which can have lingering effects on offensive performance. This is yet another rough break for a team that crested 40% Playoff Odds this season for the first time since 2016. If the Pirates can find a way to hold on until Griffin returns in September, he could provide the kick that gets them across the finish line, but that’s a big if.