FORT MYERS, Fla. — The swing was easy and true. The curveball caught slightly an excessive amount of of the plate. And similar to numerous different baseballs Konnor Griffin has seen this spring, this one landed fairly removed from house.
There was one fundamental distinction between Tuesday and all the times earlier than it, although.
Very similar to quite a lot of different issues baseball’s No. 1 prospect has completed to this point in his brief professional profession, Griffin’s first house run of Grapefruit League play this season was a memorable one. It traveled simply 374 toes, however the 104.8 mph exit velocity and 28 diploma launch angle mixed to snap the heads of everybody atop the reproduction Inexperienced Monster to consideration because the ball sailed over them and out of the park.
The homer, which got here on a 2-1 pitch from Purple Sox lefty Ranger Suárez, put the Pirates forward for good within the second inning of the Bucs’ 16-7 win.
“I heard excellent issues about him,” Suárez stated. “Nice, nice ballplayer, an excellent hitter, and you’ll see that.
“… I suppose if you’re the highest prospect within the sport that individuals anticipate that from you, and he did it in the present day. No, I wasn’t shocked.”
Supervisor Don Kelly has typically been requested to touch upon Griffin this spring, and guys just like the Phillies’ Bryce Harper have been pleased to share their opinion, too. Nonetheless, with the 19-year-old phenom doing one thing new every single day, it’ll possible be some time earlier than anybody runs out of compliments.
Griffin put that concept into apply on Tuesday, when he torched a second ball over the Monster in left-center discipline in his second at-bat. This one traveled 440 toes and got here off his bat at 111 mph.
“There’s simply not an entire lot of folks that hit it that far at a Fenway discipline setup,” Bucs starter Carmen Mlodzinski stated. “I do know it is Fenway South, however going out of the stadium at that time was tremendous spectacular.”
Griffin made outs throughout his two remaining at-bats within the sport, however he did not stroll away empty-handed both time. Griffin’s fifth-inning groundout scored a run, giving him his fourth and remaining RBI on the day. He put collectively a strong at-bat within the sixth inning, too, working Alec Gamboa for six pitches, together with 4 consecutive foul balls — one which got here off his bat at 102.2 mph — earlier than breaking his bat on the ultimate providing, a groundout to 3rd.
Of the 9 balls Griffin has put in play this season, 4 have exit velocities of 100+ mph: his two house runs in opposition to the Purple Sox, and a pair of lineouts in opposition to the Phillies on Sunday that clocked in at 109.1 and 105.6 mph.
“I used to be impressed,” Boston supervisor Alex Cora stated. “I talked to [former Red Sox coach and current Pirates Minor League coach Andy Fox] about him after the season. I believe his staff gained the league final 12 months, the Japanese League. And I stated, ‘You had a terrific staff, huh?’ He stated, “No, I had a terrific shortstop.'”
If Griffin, that shortstop, cracks the Pirates’ roster out of camp, he’ll be simply the twenty first teenager within the Fashionable Period (since 1900) to take action. He’ll even be the youngest participant to begin on Opening Day since Adrian Beltré opened the season at third base for the Dodgers in 1999, two days earlier than his twentieth birthday.
That’s quite a lot of strain to placed on a man with one season {of professional} ball beneath his belt, so let’s dial it again a notch. It might be a shock if Griffin didn’t make his MLB debut sooner or later this season — and may that occur earlier than his birthday on April 24, he’ll be the primary under-20 place participant since Juan Soto debuted for the Nationals in 2018.
“It’s superb for a 19-year-old,” Kelly stated pregame. “… We talked about [his live BP] in opposition to Paul [Skenes] that day — struck out on three fastballs, then comes up and hammers a slider to left. He’s proven the flexibility to make these changes, and we now have to remember the fact that he’s 19.
“How can we proceed to push him, enable him to be Konnor and play free? Exit and make these changes and be who he’s.”
The expectations are sky-high for some fairly spectacular don’t-see-that-very-often issues to happen, however even when they don’t occur proper now, they’re nonetheless going to be fairly cool once they do.
For now, will probably be entertaining sufficient simply to look at Griffin the remainder of spring. Simply know that ultimately, he is received some plans for the true Inexperienced Monster.
“I’ve seen quite a lot of actually cool house runs go over the massive wall,” he stated. “It might be cool to affix that membership.”
