The Pirates are inching closer toward the 2025 debut (and Pirates debut) of first baseman Spencer Horwitz. The 27-year-old has yet to play this year after undergoing wrist surgery in February, but he set out on a minor league rehab stint yesterday and went 1-for-2 with a single and a walk in three plate appearances with Double-A Altoona. Horwitz will need several games in the minors before he’s up with the big league club, but it’s a positive sign to see him take the field.
With Horwitz injured, the Pirates have split first base reps up among Enmanuel Valdez, Endy Rodriguez, Jared Triolo and (more briefly) Matt Gorski. Valdez has connected on a pair of homers and held his own in 74 plate appearances. Rodriguez and Triolo have both struggled. Gorski was only just called up for his MLB debut a few days ago. He’s 1-for-4 with a homer. As a whole, Pittsburgh first basemen have combined for a .192/.286/.374 batting line on the season. The resulting 83 wRC+ (indicating they’ve been 17% worse than average at the plate) ranks 20th in the majors.
Horwitz, one of the Pirates’ key offseason acquisitions, should provide considerably more offense. In parts of two seasons with the Blue Jays, he slashed .264/.355/.428 with 13 home runs and 21 doubles in 425 plate appearances. He’s a .316/.433/.471 hitter in 945 Triple-A plate appearances.
Horwitz has primarily been a first baseman and started at first in yesterday’s rehab game, but he doesn’t necessarily need to take over full-time reps there. The former 24th-round pick has just over 600 innings of left field work in his pro career and another 434 frames at second base. Both positions have been even more problematic for the Bucs than first base.
At second base, the Pirates have seen Adam Frazier, Nick Gonzales, Tsung-Che Cheng and the aforementioned Valdez and Triolo combine to bat .200/.300/.303. In left field, the group of Tommy Pham, Jack Suwinski, Alexander Canario, Ji Hwan Bae, Frazier and Gorski has combined for a staggering .150/.220/.187. No team in baseball has received less production from its left fielders than the Pirates.
Wherever Horwitz slots into the lineup, he should give a boost to a Pirates team that is hitting .224/.304/.341 on the whole. Pittsburgh ranks 23rd in the majors in both runs scored and home runs. Pirates hitters are 26th in batting average, 23rd in on-base percentage and 28th in slugging percentage.
The pitching has been better in Pittsburgh, particularly in the bullpen. Pirates relievers rank 14th in the majors with a solid 3.65 ERA, and Pittsburgh has seven relievers who’ve tossed at least nine innings with an ERA of 3.38 or better. Unfortunately, their most dependable arm so far, righty Justin Lawrence, is out with an elbow injury. Pirates assistant GM Bryan Stroh rather ominously revealed yesterday that Lawrence is headed for a second opinion on that ailing elbow (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). There’s still no firm timetable for Lawrence’s return, but Stroh already indicated that he’ll miss more than the minimum 15 days on this current IL stint.
Lawrence, 30, came to the Pirates via waivers this March and has been a terrific pickup. He’s fired 11 1/3 innings of one-run ball, holding opponents to just five hits. The former Rockies hurler has walked six batters and plunked another pair of hitters, casting some doubt on his ability to continue anywhere close to this level, but even with some expected regression in terms of ERA, the right-hander has looked quite intriguing thus far.
Lawrence is throwing more sliders than ever before and missing more bats than ever before. He’s also begun sporadically using a four-seamer after previously throwing a sinker as his only fastball. Lawrence has punched out a whopping 34.1% of his hitters, helping him to offset a 13.8% walk rate. His 14.5% swinging-strike rate is well north of league average and is way up from the 9.3% career mark he carried into 2025. An absence of some note would sting, and seeking a second opinion is an inherently worrisome update.
The rotation hasn’t been quite as sharp as the bullpen, due in no small part to Jared Jones’ elbow injury and early struggles from southpaw Bailey Falter and righty Carmen Mlodzinski . Falter gave up seven runs (five of them earned) in a start for the second time this season yesterday. The lefty blamed his inability to throw his offspeed pitches for strikes when assessing his performance after yesterday’s game (link via the Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley).
Falter is now sporting a 5.93 ERA on the season. He and Mlodzinski (6.95 ERA) have both been weak points in an otherwise solid rotation. Each of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Andrew Heaney have kept their ERAs under 4.00 — well under in the case of Skenes and Heaney.
The veteran Heaney has been an outstanding addition, giving the Bucs 31 1/3 innings of 1.72 ERA ball with a hearty 26.3% strikeout rate and a tidy 5.1% walk rate. The 33-year-old’s one-year, $5.25MM deal with the Pirates in March caught many off guard, but he’s been a godsend in the wake of Jones’ injury and has probably already made some clubs second guess themselves for passing on him when he lingered in free agency. The Pirates won’t want to talk about the trade deadline anytime soon, but as things stand, Heaney could be a nice arm for them to market if they can’t turn things around after an 11-18 start.
Naturally, with Jones ailing and both Falter and Mlodzinski struggling, there’s plenty of attention on the Pirates’ young arms. Thomas Harrington made a brief MLB debut earlier this season, but it’s top prospect Bubba Chandler who has Bucs fans buzzing the most. The 22-year-old righty is a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport and widely considered among the best four to five pitching prospects in particular.
Chandler is out to a brilliant start in Triple-A Indianapolis, tossing 20 1/3 frames with a 1.33 ERA, a 36.5% strikeout rate and an 8.1% walk rate. That comes on the heels of a 1.83 ERA in seven starts (39 1/3 innings) with Indianapolis late in the 2024 season. The Pirates have been cautious with the touted righty’s pitch counts early in the season, but he tossed a season-high 70 pitches in five one-hit frames his last time out.
Chandler may not be built up to the extent he was in his Triple-A run late last year, when he averaged 87 pitches and 5 2/3 innings per start, but he certainly seems stretched out enough to be a rotation upgrade in Pittsburgh. There’s no firm indication as to when Chandler might be promoted, but we’re fewer than two weeks away from the one-year anniversary of when the Pirates promoted Skenes under similar circumstances; Skenes made his MLB debut on May 11 last year.
Horwitz being back in action is very promising. Hoping to see him back in the Major Leagues very soon. Offense has looked better in the last week, but getting him back would be a huge boost. Valdez has been much better than I and many others likely expected as sort of the hold-over until Horwitz is ready. He should stick around in a platoon-utility role even once Horwitz comes back.
The news on Lawrence is pretty ominous. Anything regarding elbow injuries is always ominous. It would suck if he’s out for an extended period of time. He’s been next to lights out for the most part. You could definitley tell something was wrong in his last outing. He was missing his spots way more than usual, and threw a wild pitch in the left-handed batter’s box. If worst comes to worst and Lawrence does miss a lot of time, then the Pirates need to send Nicolas and Holderman down, promote Chandler, move Mlodzinski to the pen, and recall Hunter Stratton.
Is it me or do the Pirates always seem to have a 1b problem? Looking at past starters, looks like Santana and one of the Bell years was 1+ WAR but doesn’t seems they’ve had consistent production there since the LaRoche years.
They have for decades. The last 1B to have consecutive seasons with +2.0 fWAR was Jason Thompson in the early-1980s. It’s why having Horwitz is sort of a big deal to me. He could actually be their first consistently solid answer in years.
Kevin Young was a decent first baseman
Pirates are a loser franchise with losers running them. Losers don’t need 1b. Don’t need anything. Bobbleheads and fireworks maybe.
They’ve had plenty of 330 350 obp guys or 750 770 ops. Fans just want mvps there. 1b is the last position I care about. When they get the other positions filled I will worry about 1b. What 1b are you going to get that’s going to make up for signing Pham instead of one of the actually good outfielders? What 1b is making up for Henry Davis Suwinski Triolo and Canario who is actually hitting the ball great but extremely unlucky? You can succeed with 700 800 ops at every position even 1b. These 400 ops guys though are killing you.
Pirates don’t have a 1b problem. They have a idiots running the team problem. I told them to sign Mark Canha. .346 batting average. .417 vs LHP. Could have got him for 1 million. No team in baseball gave him a mlb deal had to do minor league deal. I gave them half a dozen outfielders same price or even cheaper than Pham. All doing drastically better than Pham. Payroll is nice but there’s good players available for free. Just need to know about baseball a lil bit.
LaRoche was an annual late starter. offensively
By the time his bat heated up, they were out of contention
Garrett Jones was a solid hitter for a couple years, but that was over a decade ago now too.
“we’re fewer than away”
Huh? Is “two weeks” missing from that statement?
Totally agree especially moving Mlodzinski to the pen and keeping Valdez. Also Holderman doesn’t belong here until he gets his act together. There are better options in AAA.
Send Triolo and Eddy down until they show more offense in AAA.
Honestly, I’d be okay if they just cut ties with Holderman altogether. Trade him for what you can get. He still has decent stuff, so some team would definitley be willing to take him on as a change-of-scenery project. Mlodzinski (when Chandler gets promoted), Stratton, Burrows, Ashcraft, you have plenty of better options to replace him with.
Sell the team bob
NOBODY wants to buy the team and keep it in the historically bad Pittsburgh baseball market.
False. MLB teams are a very limited commodity, and there would be no shortage of buyers if Nutting decided to sell.
NOBODY wants to buy the Pirates . . . . and KEEP THEM IN THE HISTORICALLY BAD PITTSBURGH BASEBALL MARKET.
If they are sold, they will be moved to a better market (Nashville, Charlotte, San Antonio) as soon as the lease on PNC Park expires at the end of the 2030 season.
I stand by my comment. There would be plenty of buyers even if there were a stipulation that the team couldn’t be relocated.
Granted, being able to relocate would increase the value of the offers. But this is still an MLB franchise. No need to dip into hyperbolic absolutes. The Pirates have drawn well (for a small market team) when the team is competitive
@Richard – A move to any city, would require league wide approval. San Antonio would seem likely is there wouldn’t be an off-balance by time zone per division. They can remain in the central without too much of an issue. The only hiccup would be Arlington and Houston not wanting to give up their market for San Antonio. And the market in San Antonio may not be much bigger than Pittsburgh.
Charlotte and Nashville would be tough sells and their market maybe just as small as Pittsburgh market. I think the Pirates if they move, it should be to Winnipeg, Canada or OKC, Oklahoma. Winnipeg could draw a nice size market and closest MLB is Minnesota. OKC may have a smaller market too with Arlington just a skip away.
Ideally, Pittsburgh is the best place for the Pirates geographically (market size) speaking. They may not get anything better than what they have. Indianapolis would do great if they moved there.
@Richard you say this with such authority. Why?
The Stack Family? Tull? Hardy? You talk to them all?
Last time I checked. I feel the pirates do very well on local tv
Bobbletroll trick ducky…why don’t you give it up..the pirates aren’t going anywhere..plain and simple….too much tradition and the best baseball park in America. So take you baseless posts and..well where the sun don’t shine
Care to explain how it’s a bad market for baseball? When the team puts out a quality product the fans show up. It’s only considered bad because the Pirates are going on nearly 40 years of mostly irrelevance, and the fans have completely lost hope.
Hannibal the guy is just trouble making troll..in fact the guy chuck from Uniontown is also a fake
Chuck from Uniontown is real as it gets.
Richard doesn’t understand basic demographics. Not his fault.
Some exciting talent on the team but they clearly aren’t going anywhere this season. Had to explain to my son that growing up they were one of the iconic franchises.
Why not promote Yorke and get his bat in the lineup? He’s been off the IL awhile now and seems to be rounding into form.
Because they are stupid. They signed Pham, Canario riding bench and Shelton still manager.
Canario and his whopping .077 batting average with 2 hits in 26 plate appearances
yes play him more
s/
Canario average should be hundreds higher. Play him and it will climb.
Average up to .190
.290 for month of May
Canario 58 at bats Pham 108
Shelton deserved to be fired. Cherington should have went as well.
Yes should have played Canario more.
Chandler should be held back untill the team outlook is a bit better or closer to the break.
Statement should read: Chandler will be held back until mid-June to manipulate service time
Not service time, but to avoid having to pay him more than the minimum in year 3. It’s called Super 2.
statement should read: don’t waste service time when there is no real chance of it making a significant contribution.other than increasing his career loss stat
EDIT: by contribution, i mean significantly increase the team performance on the year
Disagree…strongly.
Team outlook better could be 5 10 15 20 years.
“As a whole, Pittsburgh first basemen have combined for a .192/.286/.374 batting line on the season. The resulting 83 wRC+ (indicating they’ve been 17% worse than average at the plate) ranks 20th in the majors”
20th with that slash line! It’s hard to get my head around the fact that 10 teams could have worse production than that.
This was my thought, too. 1B for the Pirates has been a frustrating position for a long time but to know that there are 10 teams in a worse position just puts into context how poor the market for 1B is right now. I’m not sure they could have done better than Horowitz, honestly.
yes, the market for first baseman has been poor, this team hasn’t had a good one for decades
the off season market had quite a few average+ options. Horwitz just didn’t require overpaying to convince them to sign with a team that at best is fringy.
Market for 1b is flooded. A failed prospect and comp B pick got you Naylor. A reliever got you Lowe. Not a single team gave Canha a mlb deal. Good 1b a dime a dozen.
When Endy returns from the IL, I am not convinced that he can hit as a backup catcher
But neither can Davis and Bart hasn’t exactly been setting the ball on fire either
He struck out 3 times yesterday, once with pitches nowhere close to the plate
My pirates have a winning record with Canha playing 1b with a .346 batting average. That’s the power of AI
you’ve made the point about Canha repeatedly
Jeez don’t you have anything else to add to this conversation?
Absolutely. It should be .247 he just needs more playing time. It’s his power that I want though. 30 hr potential.
They will never send Triolo down because of his defense but as a hitter he’s too inconsistent.
Canario should released when Horowitz finally comes up to the majors
Too bad Cherington signed Pham for $4 million. He would be a perfect candidate to release. But Nutting would never allow Ben to cut ties with him this early in the season
Holderman pitched 1.1 innings of no runs baseball yesterday which is promising
Nichols isn’t the answer for long relief either and Falter has not pitched well at all this year. I know there was an issue with his back, maybe he should be further evaluated
Canario has been their 2nd best hitter. Release him now and another team might turn him into a all star. Need to get Canario in lineup more. Find out if he is the real deal.
Yeah best hitter
.077 batting average,, 2 hits in 26 plate appearances
Even Pham is doing better than him
I’ll take Canario over Pham
Help wanted!! Pirates need a consistent hitter in this lineup! We need 3 to contend, he have 0! Every one is up then down? Can’t win like that. Doesn’t matter how good pitching is.
I read several comments before the season started that Cutch should just retire
Next to Cruz, he’s been one of their best offensive players
Pirates needed to sign Canha to play 1b until Horowitz got healthy. Any outfielder not named Pham. Play Canario more. Not used Holderman and Bendar in leverage until fixed. And they would be around 500 or even winning record. Cheap common sense things and they failed to do them.
I am tired of reading this same thing about your belief that Canario is a good hitter
He sucks
And it’s too late sign Canha so why keep beating that drum?
It was too late to sign Canha on February 22. That’s why on March 21 the Royals traded for him. He is hitting .346 for them. I told the Pirates to sign him long before February 22.
I totally get what you’re saying, this team’s GM has next to zero baseball knowledge which is evident in the free agent signings he made
Cutch can’t be included, coming back is on Nutting, but not for reasons that we are discussing
He’s a fan favorite
Cutch is going anywhere. Sure he’s no spring chicken. But he’s hitting the ball great. I’d just like to see Shelton not sit him down that much.
And cutch is getting a little angry about the pirates failures. Glad to see he’s taking a more vocal role
Cutch hit a double last night while the team got shut out again for the 4th time in 10 games
Well the penguins parted ways with Sullivan. A guy with back to back Stanley’s. Now it’s time for MORON Shelton to go..then maybe tomlin..clean sweep
Penguins gm worse than Cherington. Brings in old slow overpaid overhill players. No coach winning with that.
Did they send Gorski down? Give the guy a shot at first base
Canario should be playing more. Actually pirates hitting development success so far.
O’Neil Cruz xwOBA is .416 that’s better than 94 percent of mlb players. Ohtani .426 better than 97 percent. Canario .431
He’s been astronomically unlucky. Small sample size but he is destroying the baseball. Pirates fans want this guy dfa but doing so would be foolish. Next to Cruz this guy is their best hitter so far. Play him more.
For my older friends his actual batting average is .077 but expected average is .247 Not amazing but that is with striking out at reasonable rate walking above average and most importantly lots of power. Most hit data you want to see he is doing better than most players. If he can keep it up and pirates play him he will be their 2nd best position player.
Valdez another Pirates hitting development success. Significantly better than Boston so far. New hitting coach trending positive so far.
Expected batting average isn’t what he’s batting
I could say I expected to be a multimillionaire by 21 and just because I said it, it doesn’t make it true
Canha a average was .087 when Royals traded for him in spring. They went with what he was expected to do and got a guy who’s average is .346 I would guess they didn’t expect that but expected better than .087
Cherington has to go. Great trading for Canario. But he was destroying the baseball and just getting extremely unlucky. Since he started April 13th he has just 7 at bats since. Nearly a week stretches without starting. You have to get younger developing players at bats. Pham a massive mistake. You hit the lottery like you did on Bart and you sit this kid on the bench for 4 5 6 days straight and keep playing Pham. Pham is on a 1 year deal soon to be retired. Canario has years and years of team control left this decade. Your sitting the wrong player. At the very least split their time. Unbelievable.
Pham is playing because he is paid.
He is also underperforming and will probably get better.
Shelton may be thinking that his job is on the line.
Canario has like two hits.
I agree with you that it takes more than a few at bats to see if he is any good.
Consistent use maximizes the chances to succeed.
But remember what management team you are talking about and that it is year 280 of the rebuild.
Pham better is still below average. He looks like he is toast. But sure he isn’t this bad.
Pham hits too many weak grounders when he’s not striking out looking
Canario getting closer to his expected batting average
Part of me wants to see how much they pay the city for lease of the stadium and annual taxes. More so, I want to see what they pay per year on that lease. You hear that Nutting is losing money (by sources close to the organization) even with one of lowest payrolls in the league. Something is not making sense when they make 210 million in concession, ticket, and merchandise sales. Not to mention 20-25 million a year for their TV deal and roughly 30 million in revenue sharing. If that lease is 150+ million a year and property taxes, it would explain a lot of things wrong with their budget. 50-70 million a year on the lease, would seem fair and leaving 150+ million in profit on the year before the taxes or roughly 750k (going by square yard calculation). That should still leave the Pirates with 140-170 million dollars in profit to use to retain players or adding players in free agency. Again, something we are not seeing that has this team in this “penny pinching” turmoil. Something is off or there is a lot of people within the Pittsburgh Pirates organization lying to hundreds of millions of people.
Here’s a link to the lease: law.marquette.edu/assets/sports-law/pdf/Pittsburgh…
Not saying the Pirates are profitable or unprofitable, but your list of costs covered by the ball club is very incomplete. Lease and player payroll are only two of the costs of running a baseball club. There’s front office, scouting, stadium employees, stadium and grounds upkeep, advertising, insurance, debt service, spring training, spring training facility, …the list goes on.. like the rest of us, I have no idea how much this adds up to.
My My, make a trade !Mayo setting there ,with Orioles!? Give them 2 young pitchers!! Please my g……od!!
Dice…it was reported during last years trade deadline, that Baltimore offered mayo to the pirates for bednar. But was turned down…
I’ve read different articles about trades the pirates should make at the deadline in August.
We aren’t even out of April yet.
Most say trade Pham. I mean sure he stinks,he’s 37. But you won’t get anything for him, so sure trade him. In fact he should be DFAd.
The other guy they mention is Healy. He’s 34, in a one year contract. He’s among league leaders. Maybe he’s pitching over his head. Even if he continues to pitch like this, then yeas he’s a trade commodity. I’m sure contenders will salivate over him. But there are close to 3 months left till the deadline. Let’s just wait and see
What I don’t want to happen is for them to trade their young pitching prospects. The ones not on the team now.
As for first base. The last good one, like the man 3 said was Kevin Young. There was talk about moving Reynolds to first. Sound like a plan, but there’s not much to replace him in the outfield.
If things keep going south, I’m all for calling up the young guys.
This team stinks and even more so because of the failed leadership of Derek Shelton
Shelton shouldn’t even be allowed to be on a baseball field
Scrolling through the threads on this service, other teams are promoting players or DFA players
What are the Bucs doing?
Absolutely nothing
If they get swept by the Cubs their record will be 10-21 and will be basically out of contention to even climb out of last place
Nice job Ben and Derek!
You make Pittsburgh proud ( cough cough)
They won’t promote the youngsters because they want to save their service time. And I honestly think that Shelton wouldn’t play then anyway
bases loaded no outs, worthless Pham strikes out and equally terrible, Triolo hits into a double play
Brainless Shelton pulls Wentz after giving up a single to bring in Nichols to face a left handed batter and proceeds to give up a 2 run homer
Nichols seriously belongs at Indy and would be there if Nutting wasn’t so obsessed with service time
It’s well beyond time to promote Bubba, put Carmen back into the bullpen and send Nichols to Indy
It doesn’t help that your own players only have 4 hits and that there’s been 5 pop up outs in the infield by this lackluster offense
Brainless Paul doesn’t know Shelton was away to attend sons graduation and Kelly was the manager.
Try watching the games before talking trash.
I would watch the game but my power is out and won’t be restored until May 6.
My neighborhood looks like a war zone with uprooted trees, tossed to other properties, a transformer on the street because the wind snapped the pole in half and there’s still a live power line on the street at the bottom of the road
Duquesne Light has yet to come and asses the damages.
Spare me your arrogant ignorance, Dream
Kelly was just following his masters game plan
Kelly no better than Shelton. Just a clone. I’d go buy a generator if my power was out that long. I should probably get one but my power doesn’t go out often or long. I have emergency heating supplies and some small solar.
I have a Generac generator powered by propane gas but a power line was ripped down by the storm up my street and I was expecting a delivery of propane on Wednesday
Hence no one is able to access the street by vehicle
Propane last long time they say so stock up for future. Not 90s or below zero so not worst time to lose power.
Outside of the current weather conditions being cooler than hot summer months, yes this was a good time to lose power.
Going on 4 days now without power, I had to toss all of the food in my fridge and freezer and am living on canned vegetables, cold, right out of the can
Because of my health, I mainly eat fresh ot frozen vegetables and very little meat.
So with that diet, I usually go food shopping three times a week.
I can’t go anywhere because of the storm damage on my street
As for the Pirates, they stink. Keller is no the same pitcher as he was even last year
Bart gets called out on strikes far too often.
Hayes should only play against lefties and at least Frazier still hits for his age
Canario has been getting more playing time. Pham should be released and Shelton should be fired
Barts been lucky. Been walking though so that’s good. Keller’s numbers were better than ever until last game. Not striking as many out though. Was lucky with hrs.
Bart is a big guy and a fairly good hitter but I do not think much of his catching ability.It is a very important position and there are few really good hitters there that are very good catchers also.
It is most important to handle pitchers well and be able to block pitches and throw out runners.