Pittsburgh Pirates' rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin heads to Double-A Altoona to begin his rehab assignment.
PITTSBURGH – Konnor Griffin is taking a significant step towards rejoining the Pittsburgh Pirates’ active roster.
The rookie shortstop will begin an injury rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Altoona on Wednesday night. Griffin has been on the injured list with a strained right forearm since May 31.
Griffin can be on a rehab assignment for up to 20 days. His stay is expected to be shorter, though the Pirates don’t have a definite timeframe for when Griffin will be activated from the IL.
“That’s more of a baseball decision, and that will be between the performance team, (manager Don Kelly), the hitting group, (general manager Ben Cherington), and the front office,” Pittsburgh director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Tuesday night before the Pirates lost to the visiting Seattle Mariners 3-2 at PNC Park in the opener of a three-game series.
Kelly is optimistic that Griffin will be back in Pittsburgh's lineup shortly.
“We’re going to take it day by day and just see how he’s responding to everything,” Kelly said. “Sounds like (Monday and Tuesday) went well with the challenging throws on relays and stuff in the hole. Just get him back into game action and see how he’s doing with the arm, rhythm, and timing of the at-bats. Look to get him back up here soon, hopefully.”
Griffin made his major league debut with the Pirates on April 3 and signed a nine-year, $140-million contract five days later. The 20-year-old is hitting .270/.327/.402 with four home runs, 22 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases in 51 games this season after being the consensus Minor League Player of the Year in 2025.
In his last two games before going on the IL, Griffin went 4 for 9. Yet Pittsburgh believes that keeping Griffin in the lineup would have likely resulted in him aggravating his elbow.
“Everything we’ve learned from our team physicians, from Dr. (Keith) Meister, second opinion, he was cleared to hit,” Tomczyk said. “So that decision was made out of an abundance of caution for both the long and short term for Konnor.
“If you think about the biomechanics of hitting, it would be more concerning, swinging and missing. Not so much on contact that he would continue to put stress and strain on that area, but more on the swing and missing. The other concern would be running the bases, when he would have to dive headfirst, if he was going to put the elbow in a provocative maneuver that would cause stress on that forearm.”
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