He goes to church every Sunday. He does not curse, though the proper term in Flowood, Miss., his hometown with the slogan of “Good Clean Fun,” is cuss. He calls his parents every night. He married at 19 in January to his eighth-grade sweetheart. As a teen he hired a mental skills coach. He splurges, on the rare times he does from his $140 million contract, on training and recovery tools. He says “yes, sir” as easily and often as a first-year private.
There are many reasons why Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin is an outlier. At 6'3" and 225 pounds, he is the fastest big man in MLB (more than 200 pounds). He has the fastest bat speed of any shortstop. Having turned 20 years old on April 24, three weeks after his big league debut, Griffin is likely to be the second youngest player to start 125 games at shortstop in an MLB season, behind only Hall of Famer Robin Yount (1975). He is the highest paid player in Pirates history.
