As hard as it is to believe now, there were questions about Konnor Griffin when he began his professional career earlier this year.

Scouts wondered about Griffin's bat after the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him with the ninth overall pick in the 2024 amateur draft following his senior year of high school in Flowood, Miss. Talent evaluators also questioned whether Griffin could remain at shortstop or would move to center field due to his questionable fielding.

Well, Griffin answered both of those questions this past season. He was the consensus Minor League Player of the Year and is generally considered the best prospect in baseball despite being just 19 years old.

Griffin hit .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 65 stolen bases, and 117 runs scored in 122 games combined with Low-A Bradenton, High-A Greensboro, and Double-A Altoona.

The stolen bases were not a complete surprise, as he had 85 in 43 games during his senior season at Jackson Preparatory School while being caught only once. However, it's safe to say that nobody expected the .333 batting average, .942 OPS, and 21 home runs from a teenager.

"I remember hearing a ton of that stuff during the whole draft process, but I tried to stay who I was and the athlete that I can be," Griffin said of the questions about his hitting. "I had to put it together. I've been blessed to have a lot of people in my life help me to do that. I have a great dad who's been there every step of the way, helping me with my swing. The Pirates organization has been outstanding. Every level I hit this year, the guys were great. They let me be myself, but at the same time, be open to sitting down and looking at swings, looking at different things.

"I'm just trying to face challenges every day. I knew there was going to be adversity. Just trying to overcome that was my goal. Once I did that, I just continued to roll and tried to stack good days. It ended up working out pretty well."

The biggest surprise of Griffin's season is that he won a Rawlings Minor League Gold Glove. Griffin committed just seven errors in 89 games and 757 total chances at shortstop. He was also flawless in 15 games as a center fielder.

Griffin gives credit for his defensive improvement to Chris Truby, who finished the season on the Pirates' major league coaching staff after starting it as the manager of Triple-A Indianapolis.

"I put a lot of work in at short, starting in the offseason," Griffin said. "Then it really picked up when I got to spring training, working with Truby every single day, getting my early work in. He believed in me that I could be a shortstop full-time. Once I started believing in myself that I really could do it at the pro level, things kind of took off.

"I think I played like 90% of the games at short, so I got a lot of experience this year. That was the biggest thing – I needed experience. Once I was able to finish out my first season, it was pretty cool to see the stuff that I did."