Pirates Learn From Your Past

BY KEVIN KERNAN

The Pirates need to do the right thing. For their team and for their fans.

That is a lot to think about, considering they are the Pirates, owned by Bob Nutting. The Pirates have finished in last place or next to last for nine straight seasons in the weak NL Central.

It doesn’t get much worse for a fanbase. The Pirates last made the postseason in 2015. They are in perennial rebuild; they will be one of many reasons there will be a lockout in MLB in 2027. In 2015, the Pirates drew 2,498,596 fans to beautiful PNC Park.

PNC Park is still beautiful, but the Pirates only drew 1,525,025 fans last season and that was with wunderkind Paul Skenes anchoring the rotation, the most electric starter in baseball.

And I am not even going to mention the Bucco Bricks disaster.

The Pirates can change the narrative with one move – and that is making star prospect Konnor Griffin their Opening Day shortstop when they play at Citi Field on March 26. After a three-game series in New York, it will be on to Cincinnati as Bill Belichick might say and then comes the home opener against the Baltimore Orioles on April 3.

Give the Pirates fans what they want. Don’t try to sneak another year before Griffin hits free agency by stashing him at AAA Indianapolis to start the season. No matter what kind of spring training Konnor Griffin has – and it got off to a terrific start with two Green Monster South home runs against the Red Sox on Tuesday in Fort Myers – the shortstop will be with the Pirates on Opening Day, if for no other reason than to give the Pirates fans a reason to hope.

Here at BallNine we love to look at the past and put it in perspective with present day baseball, so hear me out on this one.

The 6-4, 222-pound Griffin already looks like a full-grown man. He turns 20 on April 24 so that means he will still be a teenager when he starts at shortstop on Opening Day.

To look at the Pirates’ future, let’s go back to the Pirates’ past.

On April 17, 1955, the Pirates started a 20-year-old in right field at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in a 10-3 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. In his first at-bat in the bottom of the first, Roberto Clemente singled off Johnny Podres. In that moment, Pirates fans got a glimpse of their future.

It was fitting that this debut came against the Dodgers because former Dodgers GM Branch Rickey was then the Pirates’ boss. The Pirates, who had the worst record in the league in 1954 were able to steal away Clemente from the Dodgers because the Dodgers did not have the bonus baby on their major league roster in 1954. Any player receiving a salary of more than $4,000 had to be put on the major league roster or else be available in the rookie draft. Clemente was being paid $5,000 and also a $10,000 bonus from the Dodgers.

Clemente played that 1954 season for their top minor league club in Montreal. There had been a gentleman’s agreement that the Pirates would select Montreal pitcher Johnny Rutherford instead of Clemente with that pick. The rules at the time said a minor league team could lose only one such player so Clemente would be safe as a Dodger if Rutherford were taken by the Pirates.

Pirates fans could use some good news. Pirates fans could use some hope. 

However, Rickey and Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley got into an argument, evidently one of many, and Rickey decided to steal away Clemente.

The rest is Hall of Fame history.

Let’s be clear. In no way am I saying that Konnor Griffin is going to be a Roberto Clemente type player. But he sure is talented and appears to have a maturity about him both physically and mentally that is special.

What I am saying is that the Pirates were not afraid to put a 20-year-old on their Opening Day roster back in 1955 that helped set a new championship course for the Pirates. Five years later they stunned the Yankees in the 1960 World Series, and as a seven-year-old Yankee fan I was stunned. The Pirates, and Roberto Clemente, thanks to Bill Mazeroski’s magical World Series winning home run, were no longer a laughingstock.

By the way, I looked it up and Mazeroski came up to the Pirates in 1956 as a 19-year-old.

I was blessed to interview Mazeroski a number of times and he was a complete gentleman – and this past week Pirates fans mourned his passing when he died at the age of 89. Another link to the Pirates championship past is gone.

Pirates fans could use some good news. Pirates fans could use some hope. The Pirates under Ben Cherington finally made some positive moves this offseason and there is already talk of maybe an extension for Griffin — but like everything else with these conquered Pirates, I want to see it happen before I believe it.

Bob Nutting truly has earned the wrath of Pirates fans, so let Konnor Griffin start at shortstop on Opening Day to give those fans something to look forward to, an Opening Day of Konnor Griffin at shortstop and Paul Skenes on the mound — now that is something to get behind in Pittsburgh.

It has been a hard road for Pittsburgh fans with the Pirates failing year after year and the Steelers not having any recent postseason success.

Yinzers need some sports sunshine. The Pirates belong to the city, not to Nutting. Do it for the city of Pittsburgh, always one of my favorite cities. Walking over the Clemente bridge on my way to PNC Park is a treat. Then the game starts and it is pretty much a hopeless situation for the fans.

Griffin’s Pirates teammates believe in him, that was made abundantly clear at Pirates camp in Bradenton in videos from DK Pittsburgh Sports.

“He’s super mature, super professional in how he goes about his business,’’ Skenes said of Griffin, who was the ninth pick of the first round of the 2024 draft. “It doesn’t say 19-year-old when you interact with him. I’m excited to have him help us win a lot of games in Pittsburgh this year.’’

“It’s stupid talent, it’s dumb talent,’’ pitcher Bubba Chandler said of Griffin. “Love the kid. He has a very mature eye, which I hate as a pitcher because I want him to swing at everything.’’

“He is one of those guys who wants to win the game, he does a really good job of doing anything he can to win a game, he can do anything out there,’’ said infielder Temarr Johnson.

Konnor Griffin loves this challenge.

“I know I’m 19, and this is a pretty special age to be doing what I am doing at 19, but I try to be professional every day. I’m around a lot of great players and it kind of humbles me a little bit to stay who you are,’’ he said. “Be who you are and don’t try to change and be somebody else. I try to grow as a player every day.’’

I watched his home run trots against the Red Sox, Griffin went quickly around the bases in the same manner as Aaron Judge. Judge wears 99, of course, and right now Konnor Griffin is wearing No. 75 and cuts quite the imposing figure on a baseball field.

Last year he went from Low A to High A to AA, batting .333 with a .415 on base percentage and a .527 slugging percentage. He was the first teenager in the minors to hit .333 since Vlad Guerrero, Jr. He scored 117 runs, blasted 21 home runs, drove in 94 runs and stole 65 bases, the first minor league player to have a 20-60 season in 43 years. Griffin went to Jackson Preparatory School in Flowood, Mississippi.

He is the No. 1 prospect in MLB according to Baseball America, was the 2025 Minor League Player of the Year and scouts, on their 20 to 80 scale, grade him as a 60 hit, 70 power, 80 run and 70 arm. He married his high school sweetheart Dendy Hogan in January. The wedding featured an old school scoreboard “Griffin Field.’’

Again, Griffin turns 20 on April 24.

Here is a word of caution for the Pirates, the last thing you want to do is send a player down when his teammates believe he should be with the major league team. It sets a bad tone for the entire team and will make it seem like it is the Same Old Pirates.

Do the right thing. Have Konnor Griffin with the Pirates from Day 1 and learn to live with the good and the bad. Adjustments will have to be made, that is a way of life in the major leagues. Griffin has the maturity to make those adjustments, and his teammates want him to be part of the Pirates solution going forward. Take a chance on Konnor Griffin. Take a chance on your team. The Pirates have been minor league for way too long and with the continued dominance of Paul Skenes, there is the chance to flip the script.

The Pirates have been pitiful losers for years, to be a winner all you have to do is have baseball’s top prospect in your Opening Day lineup and let the chips fall where they may. No matter how it shakes out, Konnor Griffin will use the experience in his MLB growth.

Give the poor Pirates fans hope for a change. It worked in the long ago past, seven decades ago, and can work again in 2026.

Pirates, pencil Konnor Griffin in as your Opening Day shortstop.