The Pittsburgh Pirates are calling up the best prospect in baseball, and they’re making sure he’s theirs for a long time. Shortstop Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, will make his MLB debut Friday at PNC Park for Pittsburgh’s 2026 home opener against the Orioles, the team announced on Thursday.
And per ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Pirates and Griffin are finalizing a nine-year, $140 million contract extension — a deal that, once completed, is expected to be the largest ever signed by a player before his first major league appearance. The extension has not yet been formally announced by the team, but it is expected to be done.
Konnor Griffin's deal with the Pirates: nine years, $140 million. They're still working on finalizing.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 2, 2026Brett Taylor wrote about Griffin’s imminent call-up here at BN this morning, and the extension news this afternoon puts an exclamation point on what is already shaping up to be one of the more electric debut stories in recent memory.
Pirates Lock Up No. 1 Prospect Konnor Griffin
Griffin, 19, won’t turn 20 until April 24, which means he’ll be the first teenage position player to reach the majors since Juan Soto debuted in 2018. Only eight position players have made it to the big leagues as teenagers in the entire 21st century: Soto, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Jurickson Profar, Justin Upton, B.J. Upton, Wilson Betemit, and Jose Reyes. Griffin is about to join that list.
The Pirates did give Griffin a brief tune-up week in Triple-A before the call-up, and he responded about as well as you could hope, slashing .438/.571/.625 in five games with five walks, four strikeouts, and three stolen bases. It was essentially a formality for a player who probably could have broken camp with the big league club had Pittsburgh chosen to go that route. Instead, they were appropriately cautious, and Griffin rewarded them by being Griffin.
© Sam Navarro-Imagn ImagesThe minor league résumé he’s leaving behind is something. In 127 games across the minors, Griffin slashed .336/.420/.530 with 21 home runs and 68 stolen bases, a stat line that ranks as the fourth-highest career batting average since 2010 among minor leaguers with 500-plus full-season at-bats. He was named the 2025 MiLB Player of the Year, and it wasn’t particularly close.
The timing of the extension makes sense on multiple levels. By calling Griffin up on Friday, the Pirates preserve his ability to accumulate a full year of MLB service time, keeping them eligible for a Prospect Performance Incentive draft pick should he win the NL Rookie of the Year. Under PPI guidelines, extensions for players like Griffin are structured to be signed after the call-up, which is exactly how this is playing out. He joins fellow shortstop prospects Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt, who also recently agreed to extensions, as young players locking in long-term security early.
For the Pirates, the math is straightforward: you have the best prospect in baseball, he’s already proven he can hit at every level, and he’s 19 years old. You lock him up. Nine years and $140 million to keep a generational talent in Pittsburgh is the kind of move that can reshape a franchise, and for a Pirates fan base that has been waiting a long time for something to believe in, Friday’s home opener just got a lot more interesting.
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