{"id":521385,"date":"2026-03-06T00:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521385\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:37:26","slug":"konnor-griffin-could-join-hall-of-famer-shohei-ohtani-in-exclusive-mlb-opening-day-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521385\/","title":{"rendered":"Konnor Griffin Could Join Hall Of Famer, Shohei Ohtani In Exclusive MLB Opening Day Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Konnor Griffin has lived up to the hype<\/a> thus far in spring training.<\/p>\n

Griffin has gone just 3-for-14 through six Grapefruit League games so far, but all three of his hits have been home runs and he\u2019s recorded six RBIs.<\/p>\n

Now, with a chance to crack the Pirates\u2019 Opening Day roster<\/a>, the 19-year-old could join an exclusive and impressive list of MLB players that includes Shohei Ohtani, one baseball Hall of Famer and two other current or former stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pirates have yet to decide whether MLB\u2019s No. 1 prospect will be with the Major League club on Opening Day, but given how he has performed in Spring Training, he might be undeniable,\u201d MLB.com\u2019s Brian Murphy wrote<\/a>. \u201cIf Griffin does make the cut, he could become just the fifth player to debut on Opening Day as the game\u2019s top-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Ohtani (who debuted in 2018), the group includes Kansas City Royals two-time All-Star shortstop and 2024 AL MVP runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. (2022), one-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove award winner Jason Heyward (2010) and Hall of Famer and Minnesota Twins legend Joe Mauer.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh selected Griffin with the ninth overall pick during the 2024 MLB June Amateur and he finished last season with 21 home runs, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases in 122 games between Low-A Bradenton, High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona.<\/p>\n

The teenager also posted a .333\/.415\/.527 slash line across 484 minor-league at-bats in 2025.<\/p>\n

More MLB: Pirates All-Star Reveals Mixed Emotions Over Andrew McCutchen News<\/a><\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Konnor Griffin has lived up to the hype thus far in spring training. Griffin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,188698,591,85],"class_list":["post-521385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-konnor-griffin","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}