Breakdown: Why Griffin's injury might not hurt all that much
"A punch in the gut" was how Don Kellycharacterized it Tuesday afternoon at PNC Park, and that'd be close to impossible to counter.
This was soon after the Pirates made known that Konnor Griffin, their all-solar-system, all-tools-all-the-time shortstop, will miss the next 8-10 weeks because of an injury to his left finger sustained while making a sprawling catch Sunday in Washington. Which puts him on a pace to return by, oh, mid-September or so.
The good: He'd return for any final push to the playoffs and, if that's fruitful, the actual playoffs.
The bad: Well ... yeah.
This'll be the last we see of any of this for two months:
And all that in a solitary afternoon. To say nothing of the cumulative .276/.332/.404 slash line, the five home runs, the 17 extra-base hits, the 25 RBIs, the 20 steals in 21 attempts, all condensed within the first 59 games and 247 big-league plate appearances of his blooming baseball life.
It's a downer, for sure.
What it's not, though, I dare say, is devastating.
Hear me out on this, OK?
• Start with the obvious: This team, the polar opposite of the 2025 team to degrees I still can't fully fathom, can really, really hit. These Pirates are now, following their 12-4 bombing of the first-place Braves later Tuesday at PNC Park, second in all of Major League Baseball with a .766 OPS, behind only the billion-dollar Dodgers' .785. They're also second in batting average (.263) and on-base percentage (.342), seventh in home runs (117) and, most important, third in runs (487).
• Even after Ryan O'Hearn made "insane" history on this night by becoming the first in franchise history and the 17th in the sport's history to run up 10 RBIs in a single game -- since RBIs became an official stat in 1920 -- on the strength of three hefty home runs ...
... I can still safely say there's no one bat that's carrying all this. Not close, actually, as seen by this list of every hitter's OPS who's registered a minimum 80 plate appearances this season:
For the record -- and this isn't a knock of any kind -- Griffin's .736 OPS is 31 points lower than any of those, though it's fair to highlight that he's grown stronger over the summer.
• Allow me to remind that Cruz, out since June 7, was having the offensive breakout we'd all been awaiting for years. And that Horwitz, out since June 24, was doing much the same. And from there, allow me to add up that, in the 13 games since BOTH Cruz and Horwitz have been out, they've scored a total of 94 runs.
Or, uh, 7.2 per game.
They've also pounded out at least 11 hits -- 14 more Tuesday -- in six straight games, the team's longest such streak since seven straight games June 28- July 4, 2006.
That's all in survival mode, my friends.
They'll hit. All they've done from the New York opener onward is hit, and they'll keep doing so, certainly, once Cruz and Horwitz return.
• Kelly confirmed what anyone would've anticipated from this scenario, that most of Griffin's role will be transferred to Jared Triolo. And that's fine, too.
Yeah, I'm aware that he's become something of a pińata for the fan base but, respectfully, I can't grasp why. If anything, Triolo's tremendous at what he's paid to do, and that's to be a professional bench player capable of filling in pretty much anywhere, with the added bonus of bringing a Gold Glove with him to work everyday. He'll never blow anybody away with the bat, but he'll bring a .240 average -- believe it or not, that's one point above the majors' median average! -- and he'll stay humble enough to execute whatever's needed in the No. 9 spot.
Big whoop, right?
So, what am I missing? Anything?
I mean, I could bring up that Griffin's tantalizing ceiling could've continued to reach new heights over this summer, so it's not all-the-way reasonable to define him by his numbers to date. Or, to turn another page, that this pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, needs every ounce of offensive support that's available.
But all that's moot now. Griffin's gone for two months, and nothing will change that. And the ugly truth about the Pirates relative to their relievers is that nothing anyone achieves in any facet will matter if that's not straightened out in short order. No team anywhere succeeds while blowing half their saves.
Don't bother finding another shortstop, unless it's some Alika Williams type. And even then, Gonzales is eminently capable of sliding to his left for a day or two.
THE ASYLUM
Breakdown: Why Griffin's injury might not hurt all that much
"A punch in the gut" was how Don Kelly characterized it Tuesday afternoon at PNC Park, and that'd be close to impossible to counter.
This was soon after the Pirates made known that Konnor Griffin, their all-solar-system, all-tools-all-the-time shortstop, will miss the next 8-10 weeks because of an injury to his left finger sustained while making a sprawling catch Sunday in Washington. Which puts him on a pace to return by, oh, mid-September or so.
The good: He'd return for any final push to the playoffs and, if that's fruitful, the actual playoffs.
The bad: Well ... yeah.
This'll be the last we see of any of this for two months:
And all that in a solitary afternoon. To say nothing of the cumulative .276/.332/.404 slash line, the five home runs, the 17 extra-base hits, the 25 RBIs, the 20 steals in 21 attempts, all condensed within the first 59 games and 247 big-league plate appearances of his blooming baseball life.
It's a downer, for sure.
What it's not, though, I dare say, is devastating.
Hear me out on this, OK?
• Start with the obvious: This team, the polar opposite of the 2025 team to degrees I still can't fully fathom, can really, really hit. These Pirates are now, following their 12-4 bombing of the first-place Braves later Tuesday at PNC Park, second in all of Major League Baseball with a .766 OPS, behind only the billion-dollar Dodgers' .785. They're also second in batting average (.263) and on-base percentage (.342), seventh in home runs (117) and, most important, third in runs (487).
• Even after Ryan O'Hearn made "insane" history on this night by becoming the first in franchise history and the 17th in the sport's history to run up 10 RBIs in a single game -- since RBIs became an official stat in 1920 -- on the strength of three hefty home runs ...
... I can still safely say there's no one bat that's carrying all this. Not close, actually, as seen by this list of every hitter's OPS who's registered a minimum 80 plate appearances this season:
• Esmerlyn Valdez: 1.022
• Bryan Reynolds: .870
• Endy Rodriguez: .858
• O'Hearn: .851
• Spencer Horwitz: .841
• Tyler Callihan: .828
• Oneil Cruz: .822
• Brandon Lowe: .820
• Nick Gonzales: .767
For the record -- and this isn't a knock of any kind -- Griffin's .736 OPS is 31 points lower than any of those, though it's fair to highlight that he's grown stronger over the summer.
• Allow me to remind that Cruz, out since June 7, was having the offensive breakout we'd all been awaiting for years. And that Horwitz, out since June 24, was doing much the same. And from there, allow me to add up that, in the 13 games since BOTH Cruz and Horwitz have been out, they've scored a total of 94 runs.
Or, uh, 7.2 per game.
They've also pounded out at least 11 hits -- 14 more Tuesday -- in six straight games, the team's longest such streak since seven straight games June 28- July 4, 2006.
That's all in survival mode, my friends.
They'll hit. All they've done from the New York opener onward is hit, and they'll keep doing so, certainly, once Cruz and Horwitz return.
• Kelly confirmed what anyone would've anticipated from this scenario, that most of Griffin's role will be transferred to Jared Triolo. And that's fine, too.
Yeah, I'm aware that he's become something of a pińata for the fan base but, respectfully, I can't grasp why. If anything, Triolo's tremendous at what he's paid to do, and that's to be a professional bench player capable of filling in pretty much anywhere, with the added bonus of bringing a Gold Glove with him to work everyday. He'll never blow anybody away with the bat, but he'll bring a .240 average -- believe it or not, that's one point above the majors' median average! -- and he'll stay humble enough to execute whatever's needed in the No. 9 spot.
Big whoop, right?
So, what am I missing? Anything?
I mean, I could bring up that Griffin's tantalizing ceiling could've continued to reach new heights over this summer, so it's not all-the-way reasonable to define him by his numbers to date. Or, to turn another page, that this pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, needs every ounce of offensive support that's available.
But all that's moot now. Griffin's gone for two months, and nothing will change that. And the ugly truth about the Pirates relative to their relievers is that nothing anyone achieves in any facet will matter if that's not straightened out in short order. No team anywhere succeeds while blowing half their saves.
Don't bother finding another shortstop, unless it's some Alika Williams type. And even then, Gonzales is eminently capable of sliding to his left for a day or two.
Do bother finding people for the pen. Finally.
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