Baseball America names Pirates prospect Konnor Griffin its Minor League Player of Year

Baseball America announced Monday that it has named Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin its 2025 Minor League Player of the Year, a first for an Altoona Curve player.

The 19-year-old Griffin, who was selected ninth overall in 2024, batted .333/.415/.527 with 23 doubles, four triples, 21 home runs, 94 RBIs and 117 runs scored with 65 stolen bases across three levels this season. The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder ranked among all full-season minor-league players in runs scored (second), batting average (fourth), hits (fifth, 161), RBIs (tied for seventh) and stolen bases (tied for eighth).

Griffin’s .333 batting average is the highest by a teenager in a full season in the minors since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit .382 in 2018. Over the last 20 minor-league seasons, Griffin is the only player to finish a season with a batting average of .300 or higher, 20-plus home runs, 60-plus stolen bases and 100-plus runs scored.

After batting .338/.396/.536 with 10 doubles, nine homers and 36 RBIs in 50 games at Low-A Bradenton, Griffin was promoted to High-A Greensboro, where he batted .325/.432/.510 with 11 doubles, seven homers and 36 RBIs in 51 games.

Griffin became the youngest player in Curve history when he made his Double-A debut Aug. 19 at 19 years, three months, and 26 days. Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata are the only other players in Curve history to play for the team before their 20th birthday.

Griffin also became just the fifth teenager to join the 20 home run/40 stolen base club in the minors, joining Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves (1995), Alex Escobar of the New York Mets (1998), Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves (2017) and Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers (2023). Of this group, Griffin is the first drafted player to achieve the feat and also has the most stolen bases.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said they won’t rush him to the major leagues after only 21 games at Double-A but acknowledged Griffin is a special prospect.

“This is a player that’s really important to the Pirates,” Cherington said. “It’s important to him, too, that he’s set up to have the longest, best career possible for him. We have some influence on that in terms of how we guide the next months, years of his entry into the big leagues, however long that takes. So I do think we need to be careful about it.”