Even elite power bats are taking notice of Konnor Griffin at Pirates spring training

Pirates fans have learned to be skeptical of spring hype. We’ve seen enough “best shape of his life” seasons to know the calendar can lie. But every once in a while, spring training gives you a different kind of signal, the kind that feels less like optimism and more like recognition.

That’s what’s happening around Konnor Griffin right now.

When a veteran big leaguer pauses what he’s doing just to watch a 19-year-old take swings, that isn’t camp fluff. It’s baseball’s way of admitting something looks different. And according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Brandon Lowe didn’t try to hide what separates Griffin from the typical prospect noise.

Konnor Griffin is already giving Pirates fans a rare kind of hope at spring training

Lowe isn’t a random set of eyes. He’s a hitter who has lived in the world Griffin is trying to enter, including a 39-homer season in 2021. So when that kind of power bat tells you the ball comes off a young player’s bat in a way that makes you stop and watch, it’s worth taking seriously.

“There are certain things you enjoy as a baseball player and really appreciate,” Lowe said, per Mackey. “When you see somebody swing a bat and the ball comes off the way that he does with him, you kind of take a step back and appreciate it a little bit.

“It comes off the bat differently. To a certain degree, we probably notice it more. It’s also not just his good swings. It’s the bad swings and off-balance swings. It’s impressive.”

That last part is the one Pirates fans should underline. Lowe wasn’t talking only about Griffin’s best swings, the ones that look great in batting practice and make for easy social clips. He specifically pointed out the “bad” swings, the off-balance hacks, the moments where a young hitter is late or rushed or drifting and still hits the ball like it has somewhere urgent to be.

That’s the separator. Plenty of prospects can run into one when everything lines up. The special ones show impact even when the swing isn’t perfect.

This matters in Pittsburgh because this rebuild has too often felt like it needed everything to go right at the same time. Paul Skenes can be a top-tier weapon and it still won’t fix an offense that doesn’t scare anyone. One real middle-of-the-order bat changes the whole geometry of a lineup.

Nobody’s saying Griffin is arriving tomorrow. Development isn’t linear, and the majors don’t hand out jobs for loud contact in February. But the Pirates also don’t need him to be a finished product today to feel the shift. They just need this to be real, and they need it to keep showing up once the games stop being exhibitions.

When elite power bats are doing the universal baseball double-take, it’s not hype anymore. It’s a tell.