Ben Cherington

Connor will be one of them.

And, you know, we weren't.

We weren't closing the door coming into spring training.

We wanted to learn as much as we could from spring training.

And I think he showed us all of the things that make us believe in him so much.

We saw the defensive ability, the base feeling, the speed, the power.

It just ultimately got to the point in the spring where we felt like, you know what, let's...

Let's give him an opportunity to get some run in AAA, just get some more at-bats underneath him, sort of looking out for the length of the season and his future.

What did you see out of Connor?

Anything unexpected that you didn't expect to see that he showed you or vice versa that you were expecting that you didn't see?

I don't think really too much unexpected.

You know, the stuff during the games everyone can see.

I think the thing that people don't see is just,

what he values off the field, what he values away from the game, his practice, you know, the teammate he wants to be.

Several times when, you know, he goes to spring training, you come out of the game in the middle of the game, you finish the inning and go back in the clubhouse, do your reps and get out of here.

So often he was just staying in the dugout because he wanted to be there with his teammates, things like that.

So he really cares.

He's got a really high level of care and wants to be a Pirate, wants to be a Pirate for a long time.

here yeah you know he's he's been impressive as as we anticipated he would be you know uh knowing connor and the physical skills and he is a person uh anticipated that he would he would do good things in spring training and he has and um you know we believe that we have responsibility as an organization with connor um he's got a chance to have a really really good long career and

it's our job to do everything we can to support him in being in the best spot possible to, to do that.