PITTSBURGH (AP) — The future the Pittsburgh Pirates once envisioned fully became the present on Tuesday night.
Paul Skenes on the mound. Konnor Griffin at shortstop. Two first-round picks drafted a year apart — Skenes in 2023, Griffin in 2024 — who have embraced the pressure that comes with being labeled the cornerstones of a franchise that appears intent on being taken seriously in 2026 and beyond.
For a tidy 2 hours, 29 minutes during a 7-1 victory
over San Diego that gave the Pirates their sixth win in seven games, Skenes and Griffin took turns showcasing why Pittsburgh believes its decade-plus playoff drought could end this fall.
Skenes, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, struck out five of the first nine Padres he faced and didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning. Griffin, called up last Friday at just 19, beat out an infield single in the fifth, then nearly caught teammate Spencer Horwitz while racing from first to home on Oneil Cruz's two-run double that gave Skenes and three relievers all the offense they would need.
Griffin, whose night on defense included a laser throw to first to nail Fernando Tatis Jr. on a slow chopper, later tacked on a two-run single in the eighth for the first multi-hit game of his career.
Yes, it's early April. Yes, the season is not even two weeks old. Still, for a team that insisted from the moment it arrived in spring training that it was time to win — and made a couple of uncharacteristically aggressive moves in the offseason by trading for All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe and signing All-Star outfielder/first baseman Ryan O'Hearn to a two-year deal in free agency — the early returns have been encouraging.
“We’re in a good spot,” Skenes said after improving to 2-1. “A lot of season to go, for sure, but the first couple of weeks have been pretty dang fun.”
Skenes challenged the front office to get serious after a frustrating 2025 that was doomed by a miserable start that cost former manager Derek Shelton his job. The ace pitcher pledged to take on more of a leadership role, and the tone he sets has permeated a roster that's a mix of young homegrown talent and veterans in contract years with something to prove.
Griffin leaned into the opportunity to get an up-close look at Skenes while he kept the Padres off balance, taking another step forward following a forgettable opening-day start against the New York Mets in which he failed to make it out of the first inning.
“The way he competes on the mound, the way he fires us up in this clubhouse, we want to get runs for him because he’s going to dominate every time he goes out there,” Griffin said. "If we can just scratch some runs for him, then we’ll get him a win.”
Skenes, less than two years removed from arriving in the majors with outsized expectations of his own, has marveled at the way Griffin has deftly handled the attention that comes along when you're considered the No. 1 prospect in baseball, which Griffin was when he was called up on April 3.
Griffin provided a splash of adrenaline in his debut, lacing an RBI double in his first major league at-bat. An 0-for-13 stretch followed before Griffin raced down the line for an infield hit, and his two-run single in the eighth came after a hard-hit grounder in the seventh turned into a double play.
The setback didn't appear to rattle Griffin in the slightest, one of the many reasons the Pirates — who are hoping to sign him to a long-term agreement — are so bullish on him and why Skenes is optimistic about the direction the franchise is headed after years of feeling rudderless.
“It’s the player that we all know that he is and that he’s going to be,” Skenes said. "Sometimes, it takes a little bit to break out. It was nice to see today. It’s going to be exciting to watch.”
Skenes called Griffin, who turns 20 on April 24, “a big leaguer through and through.”
He's not the only one. Nick Gonzales, a first-round pick in 2020, played alongside Griffin at second base on Tuesday and at times couldn't help but shake his head.
“He’s a kid,” Gonzales said. “He’s doing things that I wish I could do. He hits the crap out of the ball. He’s mature beyond his age.”
And the Pirates might be — seven years into the top-down overhaul general manager Ben Cherington began methodically orchestrating when he took over in the fall of 2019 — contenders for the first time in a long time, with two players not old enough to rent a car without paying extra because they're still a ways away from their 25th birthdays at the center of it all.
It's a start.
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