11:46am: Horwitz won’t be active for tonight’s game but will be reinstated later during this weekend series, Hiles further reports.
11:09am: First baseman Spencer Horwitz will join the Pirates in Philadelphia and be active for this weekend’s series against the Phillies, reports Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’ll be the Pirates debut for Horwitz, whom Pittsburgh acquired in the offseason.
Horwitz, 27, came to the Bucs in what was effectively a three-team trade. The Blue Jays traded Horwitz and outfield prospect Nick Mitchell to the Guardians in exchange for infielder Andres Gimenez and reliever Nick Sandlin. Just a couple hours later, the Guardians sent Horwitz to the Pirates in exchange for righty Luis Ortiz and pitching prospects Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy.
In Horwitz, the Pirates hope to be acquiring a controllable first baseman who could provide a boost to their lineup. He may prove to be that, but his first crack at doing so was delayed by February wrist surgery that has prevented him from taking the field thus far.
Horwitz has played in parts of two major league seasons with Toronto and hit well the entire time he’s been in the majors. In 425 plate appearances, he’s a .264/.355/.428 batter. He’s shown a similar OBP-over-power approach in the upper minors, slashing .316/.429/.471 in 978 plate appearances with the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo. Horwitz was largely blocked from playing time at first base in Toronto thanks to the presence of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., so the Jays tried him briefly at second base and in left field.
No such shuffling will be necessary in Pittsburgh, where Pirates first basemen have combined to post an anemic .192/.259/.340 slash so far in 2025 (64 wRC+). That production — or lack thereof — comes via the quartet of Enmanuel Valdez, Matt Gorski, Endy Rodriguez and Jared Triolo. Horwitz should have a clear runway to take the everyday first base job in Pittsburgh. If he’s able to do so, the Pirates can control him for five additional seasons beyond the current year. He’d be arbitration-eligible as a Super Two player in the 2027-28 offseason.
Because they were just 1 Spencer Horwitz away from contending. Playing Emmanual Valdez at 1B and hitting him cleanup is the most pathetic attempt at roster building for any serious club.
Just one of Sheltons picked out of a hat ridiculous lineups.
In all fairness, he and Gonzeles were expected to the higher average supplementary players to Cruz and Reynolds this year and having neither hurt. Again Suwinski and Davis failed, Pham is now exiled from the team. Not that it matters, and every team has injuries, but a what if scenario of those guys around with Bart, Hayes playing a bit better, and IKF who gets hits often would be maybe league average? Canario and Gorski also seem to be improving a bit at least.
Canario has gotten worse. Still looking good to great but small decline from April.
Canario batting over .300 in May.
Pham is exiled?
1 game suspension for “making rude gestures toward Angels fans” last month. Lost his appeal.
Nice Pham move. They playing him less? I feel like if you sign Tommy Pham this level of bad behavior should be a sign of improvement! “Great job not stabbing anyone Tommy, way to use your words!”.
Pham didn’t play the last three games
Pham took his appeal off the table since he had a sore ankle or something
more like a sore swing.
He has been atrocious this season and is better off sitting on the bench or being dfa
When they signed him did they think they were getting a Phamily man?
Valdez one of the better hitters on a awful team.
Finally! Getting a guy who had a 127 wRC+ in his rookie season into this line-up is a huge boost that is much needed. I think he’ll end up being a .270 hitter with average power, and a good OBP with a low K%. His sort of play style will work very well in PNC Park, and he had some drastic home/away splits last year for the Jays. PNC favors lefty hitters much more than Rogers Centre.
Although the season is mostly over at this point I’m ecstatic to see Horwitz activated before the Phillies series, coming off a win too is a huge boost too. Let’s see if they can scrap together a couple wins now
I’ll be honest, I don’t think the season is ‘mostly over.’ I think at least something can still be salvaged. That doesn’t mean I think they’re all of a sudden going to take the league by storm and secure a playoff spot, but just better than 2023 or 2024.
If they hit 70 wins, it’ll be somewhat amazing
Even with this guy being activated, the question will continue to be, “Where are the runs going to come from?”
This team continues to strike out way too much and can’t get runners on base. When they do, they can’t move them. There’s no magic wand that’s going to change any of that. And it certainly won’t improve with this kid
Horwitz should be one of the best pirates hitters sadly
If a guy who put up a 127 wRC+ last year would be one of our best hitters, then we’re doing better than I thought.
Yeah this major addition to the lineup will prob send the pirates on a 15 game win streak! But in reality the pirates haven’t scored more than 4 runs since April 22nd and if they have a lead Bednar is sure to blow it. I love the pirates. But man do they suck bad.
Hey, Bednar has been really good as of recently. Only 3 earned runs, 18 K’s, holding opponents to only a .535 OPS, just a single walk since he got recalled.
Bednar has been really good when he’s not being used as the closer
I truly appreciate the cockeyed optimist take here. But you’ll have to forgive me. I’ve seen too much baseball to believe in any of these guys.
About time!
I would be in favor of making sports teams more of a public trust. The city or local entity or region owns at least 15% of the team and owners only get 8-12 yrs to prove they have the wherewithal, financial backing and knowledge to run at least a somewhat successful team.
Under this ownership theory, owners of teams like the Pirates and Marlins would be on the clock or forced to sell their team by MLB and/or their local governing authorities.
I’d like to see the players union be a majority owner of a team with the commissioners office being the minority shareholder
That would be kind of intriguing. Eventually the owners get the boot if they aren’t making real progress or have a plan to build a winner.
“Players union majority owner”…I don’t believe the player’s union would be a positive in this particular alignment. The MLB Player’s union has long been run by player agents who seemingly only care about the top 5-10% of players.
If the Players Union ran a team it would likely have FOUR players paid at the top of the salary scale and 22 minimum salary players. It sounds good in theory, but the union has a history of ignoring the interests of 80% of players, to serve the interests of the top 5%-10%.
Except ALL the players select the leadership of the union, so no, the top 10% would not dictate to those making the league minimum
The flaw in this plan is the union doesn’t have nearly the money to buy out the current owners.
FInally, however this guy is gonna get torn to shreds if he doesn’t come out the gate hot. That’s what happens when you add very little to a bad offense. Hard to believe they couldn’t replace the production of Tellez and Connor Joe but here we are.
come on, they added Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier
I am being sarcastic
He hit one yesterday afternoon. Excited to see him coming up.
Put him and Bubba on the same plane. Get them both up here.
But why Bubba? Seriously. What’s the use? How many good starts can a team waste? Ask Skenes and Keller.
I’m all for Chandler getting here and showing his stuff. I’m just not sure how much sense it makes right now
For me it’s for a couple reasons:
1. I would rather as many innings this year as possible are meaningful for Chandler. I know Pirates games are questionably “meaningful” but they are absolutely more meaningful than any AAA game.
2. Bringing up an exciting player could honestly play a role in getting other guys excited (and demonstrate to people like Skenes and others that the Pirates actually want to win this year).
3. They could trade away someone like Falter (or even Heaney) for a bat.
Yeah, can’t argue with any of that
They play like they expect to lose. Just no excitement with this bunch
And it’s a shame. They have good starting pitching. It would’ve been prudent to add a bat or two to allow them to compete. Instead, we have people excited about Spencer Horwitz.
you trust Cherington to trade a pitcher for a mlb bat?
I wouldn’t trust him to trade the mascot for another mascot
Bubba? First – I’m not a Pirates fan, I’m a fan of another Org with poor financial backing (considering their media market,) that also has a long history of bad decisions. SEA.
Although our current FO has had success with player drafting and development our ML team has not been able to develop more than a couple of very good hitters. However that is my point, I think PIT should bring Bubba Chandler up- the M’s have shown that a very strong Rotation can help you win games despite having one of the Leagues worst offenses. Okay this 2025 M’s lineup has shown recent improvement but that has come mostly from taking their walks, being aggressive with SB’s and hitting the odd timely HRs- for the first time in the last 4 seasons they are just inside the Top 10 in team wRC+. Their 2022 team that broke the 20 yr playoff drought won the most 1 Run margin games in MLB that year- on the backs of their young Pitching Staff. We finished 2023 and 2024 only 1-2 games out of the playoffs, disappointing seasons but still largely competitive.
The two teams are not identical obviously but I think you can see my overall point. If you have dominant Pitching you don’t have to have an offense like the Yankees or BOS. Hopefully your young team can learn to win. A team that largely grows up together in the same minor League system is a very tight knit team. That also helps a team win some close games……good luck this year Buccos.
The problem is that starters are on pitch counts these days. 100 pitches. 5, maybe 6 innings. The bullpen here has been shaky at best
And when you can’t score runs, it kind of negates your starting pitching
Keller is 1-5. Skenes 3-4. Neither deserve those marks.
Plain and simple, they need hitters and especially, guys who can drive in runs. Not a lot to be thrilled about here
Who got sent down?
I’m guessing Pham or Gorski. I want Gorski to stay up here. Bae could also go but he’s the best CF without Cruz. They refused to play Pham all series vs the Mets with a badly slumping Reynolds and no CF, even playing Cutch in the OF a day. He’s done. Canario can play every day at this point, the past two weeks he’s progressed a ton and his hits are finally getting through.
Pham can’t get sent down. He can be dfa though.
Horowitz bats left, Gorski bats right.
They should dfa Pham but I am not a Nutting would agree to pay for someone else for the rest of the season ( Shelton) who isn’t part time this team.
With Cruz’ back issues, I don’t see Bae being the victim going back to Indy
Gorski is better in CF than Bae.
maybe so but using Frazier at second isn’t the answer either
He’s another player who should get dfa.
Cutch is done? He leads the team in hits and walks
No one yet, the move hasn’t officially been made.
Not Gorski ,he also can play cf!! He stays !
16 Ks in less than 40 ABs with 0 walks. Zero. And that’s been his problem at every stop in the minors.
That being said, he’s better than Bae
that’s a problem with the major league team too. The only player who draws walks on a regular basis is also the oldest player on the team. ( Cutch)
This team needs base runners and hits with runners in scoring position
They get guys on base and never move to another base
Gorski just put that on his Linkedin profile.
Pirates need to trade skenes. Get the tigers top 10 prospects skenes will be gone and pirates have little besides a couple of nice arms. They have Zero potential 5 war hitters. Cruz is a liability
Keep dreaming, Skenes isn’t going anywhere
SMH
Wow. You will have Barry Sanders and win 70 games every year. congrats. Pirates GM would be smart to be open to anything.
How is Cruz a liability? All 29 of the other teams would love to have him in their lineups. I bet the Dodgers wish they never heard of Tony Watson.
horrible defender
at shortstop yes but at center field, no
Cruz isn’t a liability and he is also a potential 5 WAR hitter. If he keeps pace with his current 1.2 fWAR and plays as many games as he did last year, he’ll rack up 4.7 fWAR. Any difference less than .5-1.0 in WAR is basically negligible. Plus he’s getting better in CF.
Cruz has a great deal of upside but he could use a good manager or coach to not only refine his defensive play but get into his head about the basics of the game. I can’t believe it’s mission impossible. He’s young. And he can be so much better
I think part of the problem he tries to give 120% when he can only give 100%. He goes into overdrive, and that was causing him some issues at the start fo the year, diving for balls he shouldn’t have, or trying to get ready to throw the ball before it was even in his glove, along with still getting used to the position. He’s slowed things down, and it’s done him sone good. He was trying too hard to prove himself too quickly.
Impossible to give 120 percent or even try to
that’s not the point, he gives more in the outfield than he should.
Jeez people here don’t seem to understand basic fundamentals of baseball
Exactly. And that’s the failure of the player development staff. He’s like a great many players here in that defensively, he just doesn’t know the position. One can give him a pass because he’s moved to CF and it takes time. But whether it’s how to run bases, bunt, hitting cut offs, when to make a throw and when not, these kids never cease to amaze me in how little they know
Cleveland Legend
As a tormented reds fan I can tell you Skenes is going somewhere, Him and Elly both. Likely sooner than later.
no offense but we think Reds fans are equally as stupid as Mets fans
Every single player in MLB is available for trade. Just facts.
so being the professional General Manager of every team it’s your opinion that no player is untouchable?
Your arrogance is sickening.
Fact is, you don’t know what you’re talking about
Get off the sh…..t,he’s not going anywhere soon.