BRADENTON, Fla. -- It didn’t take long for baseball’s No. 1 prospect to send one over the fence in live BP this spring.
Konnor Griffin was going to go deep; it was only a matter of time. And while Nick Dombkowski probably preferred it to come off someone else, Griffin's teammate took it in stride.
"You’ve got to get the first one out of the way,” Dombkowski said with a smile on Wednesday. “Might as well give it to somebody cool.”
The two shared friendly banter over breakfast that morning before stepping into live at-bats at Pirate City.
Dombkowski came hard at his teammate, catching Griffin looking at a pair of pitches before the 19-year-old phenom fouled off a third. The next pitch was supposed to be a cutter up and in, but Dombkowski held onto it a beat too long, and it caught more of the middle of the plate than intended.
Griffin did not miss, sending the ball soaring over the left-field fence for his first home run off live pitching this spring. For his part, Dombkowski was prepared to weather a little good-natured ribbing from teammates and friends, joking that he was headed for social-media stardom, albeit for the wrong reasons.
“I’ll be getting stuff from the guys,” he said. “But it’s all good.”
If anything, Dombkowski’s reaction said even more about Griffin than the prospect’s swing did. He and Griffin were teammates for a short time last season when the left-hander was on a rehab assignment with High-A Greensboro. It was there that Dombkowski watched Griffin transition seamlessly from shortstop to center field in the span of a week. He knows talent when he sees it.
“He’s a great kid. Super humble,” Dombkowski said. “It’s nice to see a younger guy carry himself like that, for being such a big-time guy.”
On Wednesday, Griffin didn’t stop to admire his home run. This spring, he said, isn’t about homers or exit velocities. He’s got a chance to break camp with the big league club, but he knows there’s still work to be done to get there. He’s ready for it.
“[I’m] working on staying on the back side and not jumping forward [in the batter’s box], keeping my head still, different little things like that we're just playing around with every day,” Griffin said. “Instead of just going out there and hitting for fun, we're attacking a challenge at the same time.”
And if a ball leaves the park while he’s working, that's just a bonus.
That’s one of the things about Griffin that manager Don Kelly likes the most. Griffin is constantly tweaking his approach, picking his teammates’ brains and forming strategies to improve.
“[It’s] that ability at such a young age to be able to understand that and to understand the adjustments that need to be made, even against the guys that he’s facing,” Kelly said. “... It’s really encouraging, the way he’s thinking about the game.”
After the at-bat, Griffin and Dombkowski met halfway between the mound and the plate and walked off the field together. Then, they talked. No shade thrown, just ways to get better.
“He had me in a good count to punch me out, and [he] just kind of left it more middle than he probably would have liked,” Griffin said. “Sometimes, it gets hitters out; sometimes, the hitter will win the battle. It's just a friendly battle, and we're making each other better.”
Sometimes, the hitter wins the social media cycle, too.
Dombkowski is prepared for it.
“I’ve got to get him to the big leagues somehow,” he joked.
The first home run always belongs to somebody. This time, it belonged to a young hitter refining a swing and a pitcher confident enough to laugh about it.
Spring is competitive like that. And collaborative, too.