The house sits on a country road in a small town in Mississippi, with a fishing pond out front, a Wiffle ball field out back, no stoplight in sight and a teenager living inside with his parents and 10th grade little brother.
It’s Florence, a town of about 4,000, located just 14 miles south of the state capital in Jackson.
It is the home of Konnor Griffin, who graduated from high school a year early and happens to be the best darn 19-year-old baseball player in the country.
Griffin, a shortstop in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, was selected USA TODAY Sports’ Minor League Player of the Year for his dazzling first season. He played at three levels in his first year of pro ball, rising to Class AA, and hit .333 with 21 homers, 94 RBIs, a .941 OPS and 65 stolen bases in 122 games.
He was the first minor league player in 20 years to hit at least. 300 with more than 20 homers, 60 stolen bases and 100 runs scored, while also playing fabulous defense.
It may be a bit hyperbolic considering he has only one year of professional experience, but the Pirates can’t help themselves. He just might be their finest all-around prospect since, well, a fellow by the name of Barry Bonds.
He has that type of potential.
It was here in Florence where Griffin began swinging a Wiffle bat at the age of 2, when his father, Kevin, a softball coach, noticed his son might be a little different from the rest of the toddlers in town.
“My oldest son was 5 at the time, and Konnor was playing on the same T-ball team,” said Kevin Griffin. “By the time he turned 12, he was just doing things you didn’t see the other kids do. Athletically, the way he moved, it was just different. I think it was at about that time I thought he had a chance to have some kind of career in the sport of baseball.”
Just in case Kevin Griffin needed any validation, colleges began taking notice, and before Griffin finished seventh grade, he was offered a scholarship to Tulane University. In eighth grade, he received an offer from the University of Mississippi. By the ninth grade, he was a household name in the state of Mississippi.
“When he entered junior high school, a lot of eyes were on him,” Kevin Griffin said. “He got to high school and continued to evolve.”
It was so apparent that Griffin was advanced for his age that he skipped 10th grade so he could take his official recruiting visits a year early, and he committed in his senior year to LSU, winning the National Gatorade Player of the Year award.
“My dream was to play baseball at the Division I level,” Griffin said. “I loved talking to all of the coaches and building relationships. There were a lot of people who believed in me. I’ll always remember every school that reached out to me.”
Griffin was looking forward to the college life until major league organizations had other ideas, with scouts flocking to his games and practices, prepared to make him an incredibly rich teenager.
“We always wanted Konnor to not make a decision because of money,” Kevin Griffin said. “If he was going to bypass college, it would have to be a life-changing experience for him.”
The draft came, and the Chicago White Sox expressed strong interest with the No. 5 pick, but Griffin wasn’t interested in signing any deal below slot value money to simply give a team a discount. He wanted to be paid for what he was worth or he’d simply go to college.
The Pirates called with the ninth pick, making him the first high school player drafted. They were willing to pay $6.5 million, actually above the slot value.
They had a deal.
“It was pretty life-changing money for an 18-year-old kid,” Kevin Griffin said. “As a dad, I couldn’t look at him and convince him to run away from that sort of signing bonus.”
Griffin was assigned to Class A Bradenton (Florida), hit .338 with a .932 OPS, and was promoted to High A Greensboro (North Carolina) after 50 games.
He hit .325 with a .942 OPS, stayed just 51 games, and then was off to Class AA Altoona (Pennsylvania), where Griffin finished the season slashing .337/.418/.542.
He will be at the Pirates’ major league spring training camp next spring.
If all goes well, Griffin could be calling Pittsburgh home by early summer.
“That’s my goal,” Griffin said. “I’d love to go to war with those guys. It would be a dream come true.”
Keeping close to home
The Pirates aren’t just impressed by his talent, but his maturity level. It’s as if he has already been in the big leagues for the past 10 years. He acts as if he belongs, without the slightest bit of cockiness.
Is he confident? You bet.
Is he humble? What other teenager has $6.5 million in his bank account and doesn’t even touch it? His only big purchase has been a Ford Bronco Raptor that he used with licensing money from baseball card collectibles. He lives at home in the offseason and can’t imagine ever moving away from the Florence area.
“I love the small-town feel,” says Griffin, who enjoys bass fishing whenever he finds time. “I’d like to get a place with a lot of land one day, but I always want to be close to home.”
There are parents who beg their kids just to call every once in a while after leaving home. Griffin called home every single day, after every single game and talked in detail about each of his at-bats with his dad, as if he was trying to make his high school baseball team.
“I always call to check in with my dad or mom,” Griffin says. “My dad will always have something to say about the game, different things he sees me doing. We talk every night.
“I mean, it was my dad and my brothers (one older, one younger) who have helped me become the player I am today.”
The Griffins can’t begin to tell you how many hours they have spent in the batting cages over the years, playing Wiffle ball in the back yard, or traveling to tournaments from Little League to high school. They still remember his first home run off the foul pole at the age of 6, or the time he was playing in a travel ball tournament at 12 in Oxford, Mississippi, when he was barred because of his size and talent.
Griffin, 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, could have easily chosen basketball or football growing up. He was the best player on his high school basketball team, averaging 20 points per game, and was a speedy wide receiver in football.
Yet it was always baseball, with dad coaching collegiate basketball before turning to softball and becoming the head softball coach for the past 15 years at Belhaven University in Jackson.
“I always loved baseball,” says Kevin Griffin, 52, who grew up a die-hard Atlanta fan, with Dale Murphy his hero and Konnor later choosing Ronald Acuña Jr as his favorite. “So I put him in baseball as quick as I could so he didn’t have to play soccer.”
This is why Griffin got his first Wiffle ball bat at 2 years old and kept getting a new bat every year on his birthday. Now he has bat companies flooding him with their models, realizing the marketing opportunities with the game’s best young player.
‘Never stop learning’
Griffin still constantly reaches out looking for tips and advice to improve his game, whether driving to former MLB catcher Brian McCann’s home in Atlanta, where he has his own batting cage, or getting hitting tips from former players Mark DeRosa and Jeff Francouer. Griffin might become a star one day in the big leagues, but he refuses to stop searching for excellence.
“There’s nothing like father-son time in the cages,” Kevin Griffin says. “But when he’s gone during the season, I watch all of his games on video, and we will go through every at-bat, talking about the good, the bad and what to do differently. He’s always tweaking something and making adjustments every day. He’ll never stop learning.”
And never, ever, will he stop being thankful for everything that has not only made him the player, but the person he is today.
“I’m so proud to be from Florence, Mississippi,” Griffin says. “And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they’re proud of me.”
USA TODAY Sports Minor League Player of the Year winners
USA TODAY has been handing out the Minor League Player of the Year award annually since 1988, honoring the top minor league player as voted on by the staff’s MLB writers and editors.
Of 16 winners since 2008, 13 have become All-Stars and that group has combined for three MVP awards, three Cy Young awards and five Rookie of the Year wins.
2025: Konnor Griffin, Pirates
2024: Kristian Campbell, Red Sox
2023: Jackson Holliday, Orioles
2022: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks (2023 NL Rookie of the Year)
2021: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals
2020: No season due to COVID-19
2019: Luis Robert, White Sox
2018: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
2017: Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves (2018 NL RoY, 2023 NL MVP)
2016: Alex Bregman, Astros
2015: Blake Snell, Rays (2018 AL Cy Young, 2023 NL Cy Young)
2014: Kris Bryant, Cubs (2015 NL RoY, 2016 NL MVP)
2013: Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox
2012: Wil Myers, Royals (2013 AL RoY)
2011: Paul Goldschmidt, Diamondbacks (2022 NL MVP)
2010: Jeremy Hellickson, Rays (2011 AL RoY)
2009: Jason Heyward, Braves
2008: David Price, Rays (2012 AL Cy Young)
2007: Justin Upton, Diamondbacks
2006: Matt Garza, Twins
2005: Francisco Liriano, Twins
2004: Jeff Francis, Rockies
2003: Prince Fielder, Brewers
2002: Jose Reyes, Mets
2001: Josh Beckett, Marlins
2000: Josh Hamilton, Devil Rays (2010 AL MVP)
1999: Rick Ankiel, Cardinals
1998: Gabe Kapler, Tigers
1997: Ben Grieve, Athletics (1998 AL RoY)
1996: Andruw Jones, Braves
1995: Andruw Jones, Braves
1994: Billy Ashley, Dodgers
1993: Cliff Floyd, Expos
1992: Carlos Delgado, Blue Jays
1991: Mark Wohlers, Braves
1990: Tino Martinez, Mariners
1989: Todd Zeile, Cardinals
1988: Mike Harkey, Cubs