Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa Makes Surprising Claim About Konnor Griffin

Big things are expected from the Pirates' young phenom.

Konnor Griffin will play in his first MLB game on Friday. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Excitement abounds in Pittsburgh today as Konnor Griffin is slated to make his Major League Baseball debut for the Pirates. The 19-year-old prospect enters the bigs with tremendous hype and a skill set that simply does not manifest very often. He has elite power and speed and all indications are that he'll hit the ground running as he attempts to become the cornerstone of a franchise desperate to get back to its winning ways.

Our Ryan Phillips broke down what fans can expect to see of the electric young player and it's tough to not have unfair expectations. One doesn't want to be too hyperbolic because almost every player has to overcome a learning curve. But those who have been around the game a long time and presumably seen it all are also lending their voices to the fray.

Here's Team USA manager Mark DeRosa recalling the time he saw Griffin, then just 16, come hit with himself and Brian McCann.

"It was ridiculous," DeRosa said on MLB Central. "I had never seen an athlete look like this."

"I had never seen an athlete look like this... Pirates games just got a lot more interesting."#MLBCentral reacts to MLB's No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin getting the call to The Show. https://t.co/cjaJdMaS22 pic.twitter.com/sqGswOJTQn

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) April 2, 2026

"You bet on the character and you bet on the skill set and there's like two people in the league that have these tools," DeRosa added. "It's crazy."

That's quite a statement considering that DeRosa was just recently around the very best players in the world at the WBC.

Griffin is listed at 6' 3" and 222 pounds. It's entirely possible he's still growing. Throw on 10 more pounds of muscle over the first few years—or more—and he's one of the more physically imposing players in the game.

The Pirates plan to start him at shortstop but he also has the ability to play center field. No matter where he plays he's expected to get the job done.

It's always fun to get very psyched up when a talent like this is about to break through into the big show. And this year has already provided some historic debuts, with both Chase DeLauter and Jose Fernandez enjoying two home runs in their first MLB game. That's quite a bar for Griffin to match but considering all that's being said of him, it wouldn't be a surprise if he matched.

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