May 17: Horwitz is being activated for today’s game, as manager Don Kelly told reporters (including Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) this afternoon. First baseman and outfielder Matt Gorski is being optioned to the minor leagues in a corresponding move.
May 16, 11:46am: Horwitz won’t be active for tonight’s game but will be reinstated later during this weekend series, Hiles further reports.
May 16, 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.
He’s on a hitting streak. Looking at his game logs he’s gotten a lot better. Wasn’t hitting a lick at first.
Been good all year. Better in April. He’s gotten worse. Just about every relevant piece of data is down from where it was. It’s still good great elite but not as good as it was in April.
@AI Canario had a .352 OPS in April vs .826 OPS in May.
Avg ops just a small sample size almost worthless luck stat. Has nothing to do with how he was hitting. Or even not hitting the ball because his k rate is up and walk rate is down from his April high. He’s still good great but most of his numbers are down in May compared to where they were in April.
@AI are you Derek Shelton?
No. Shelton clearly was too stupid to notice anything. I was posting here every day how good Canario was doing and how stupid Shelton Cherington was for not playing him. Kelly is slightly more intelligent but only slightly. He had Pham starting still but Pham got sick. If Canario extremely terrible luck continued for 2 more games Pham would probably still had a starting job.
Mets improved Canario. Was awesome in March. Didn’t have roster spot because they failed to trade Marte. Canario was hot for Pirates all April. They just failed to utilize him. They’re analytics department is in the stone age or management is just stupid or both. Canario should have been playing every day from the day they hit the lottery and got him.
@AI how is going 2-for-27 hot in April?
2 for 27 is result. In such a micro sample size results are irrelevant.
Canario hit a three run homer in last night’s game and was the only player to have more than one hit
Not surprising. I said back in April Canario is the 2nd best hitter on team. Without Cruz he’s the best. Have to watch his strike outs but no signs for concern yet still destroying the baseball like he has all year.
Fake stats don’t mean a player has been good. Suwinski had good expected numbers. Gotta make contact with the ball consistently for your exit velocity and barrel rate to matter.
Suwinski xslg 400 vs Canario 700
Suwinski exit 89.5 vs Canario 94.9
Suwinski k rate 42 vs Canario 23
That’s not a apple to apple comparison at all. Not even remotely close.
@AI now do Canario XSLG, EV, And K% from April.
@Chuck from Uniontown
Those are from April. That’s when everyone was wanting him released and I dug deeper into him.
12 BB rate
.274 XAvg
59 hard hit
77.4 bat speed
31.6 barrel
May
92.3
Xslug .557
.256 XAvg
53.2 hard hit
76.9 bat speed
21.3 barrel
Those were before today’s game so will be dropping lower once updated. Still good great but lower than they were in April.
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?
Pham never stabbed anyone, he GOT stabbed… his bad behavior was punching Joc for no reason lol
Joc seems like a pretty chill dude.
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
MLB- They have to go 62 and 56 to finish with 77 wins,which is one game better than the last two years.
Not sure that that can be described as salvaging the season.
They need to go 67 and 51 to have a winning record.That is about a 92 win pace for a season.
The only thing that they can salvage is playing better under Kelly,and at least breaking even.That puts them at 74 wins.
74 wins should guarantee a firing of Cherington
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.
Depends on what you mean by compete.
Having a winning record once in awhile,yes.
Winning a World Series,no.
they haven’t scored more than 4 runs in a game now in 22 consecutive games
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
The Seattle ballpark makes pitchers better and hitters worse. Its not the development. Its the anti Colorado effect.
I get that and very few teams these days can turnaround a rebuild in a short amount of time without adding investments in FA and making good trades from their Farm. Frankly I think rebuilding/tanking is absolutely disgraceful and should not be allowed but that’s a different discussion for another day! Haha
I don’t think you understand how pitiful the SEA offense has been over the last 5 yrs or so. I mean it’s been almost dead last in nearly every offensive category. They’d be lucky to score more than 4 Runs in a game and they nearly broke the MLB record for strikeouts over the last 2 years. That is a horrible combination.
Skenes Keller and Chandler would be a really good rotation but what do I know? I’m just a guy that hates rebuilds and teams who keep top prospects in the Minors for too long!
That it is true to some degree, the SEA rotation is still young and still learning and improving on pitching at smaller parks like Fenway and Minute Maid Park.
Bryan Woo has been incredible both at home and on the road and Logan Gilbert’s road record last year was spoiled by two outings where he was shelled in early exits. Bryce Miller was one of the Top 3 Pitchers in all of MLB for the 2nd half of last yr when he figured things out. His road ERA was around 2.50-2.70 for the entire 2nd half. These young SEA Pitchers keep getting better as they learn to pitch on the road. Logan Gilbert was dominating at both home and away this year before going on the IL a couple weeks ago. If we could only stop Luis Castillo from bringing that team Road ERA down!
Skenes, Keller and Chandler certainly would be a strong rotation anywhere. And they have other arms here, too Pitching isn’t the problem, although they have to sort out the bullpen
My dad used to call this kind of lineup “a lot of scrap”. That’s the case here. I can’t fathom what anyone can be optimistic about. Either at present or via the farm
AI GM offers a good plan here as to how they could build around the rebuild lol. Problem is, I get the feeling their GM just throws things at the wall and hopes for the best.
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
I think he meant as an OF. But maybe he didnt’.
I said Pham was done, referencing the fact they put Cutch back in the field rather than Pham, but I was wrong and Pham got the start today. Still I think he’s no longer an everyday player at least.
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
Cruz has improved his BB% a great deal.
Gorski just put that on his Linkedin profile.
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
Get off the sh…..t,he’s not going anywhere soon.
Can we get a update on Cruz? And do the pirates have to wait until last min every game to announce the lineup.
Cruz was used as a pinch hitter last night and struck out
the bullpen blew another potential win, Wentz should have dfa when Murrtta’s rehab is complete
To hurt to start but healthy enough to come off bench cold and face a tuff lefty closer.
That was Kelly’s loss.
He should have used Shugart,Bednar,and Santana.
They had the previous day off too.
No guarantee but Holderman is toast and Rainey should not be put into tough situations.
Wentz is in danger of losing his roster spot.
Same stuff that Shelton used to pull.
if the lineup is anything like it was under Shelton, Kelly might be waiting until Cherington tells him who to pencil in
Looks like another shutout tonight…maybe nutjob nutting should DFA the whole front office and coaching staff.
And that goes for Kelly. Same disastrous results as Shelton. Kelly doest get a flier.
Time to throw in the white towel, and the green weenie, and cancel the rest of the year.
Cruz should either be in right field to take advantage of his arm, or first base to take advantage of his height and wing span. He’s not a shortstop and he’s definitely not a centerfielder.
I’m not going to defend Cruz. In the past, he’s often looked like he’d rather have discussions with opponents than focus on his position during games. He’s jogged out ground balls, admired fly balls, made incredibly dumb throws and shown little knowledge of situational hitting, the strike zone and failed to pick up spin pitches
But he’s a kid, really, and he’s shown some improvement in all those areas this year. *Some*
It’s too early to kick him out of center and really, you want to put him in right, where judging movement of fly balls is paramount and dealing with that wall will take some time. Ask Greg Polanco
Switching positions again this soon could adversely affect his offense.
Getting into his head that he’s not good enough to play center field
Leave him where he’s currently at.
He will get better with time
Hard to believe that Gorski was optioned to Indy to make room for Horowitz when the latter doesn’t hit well against lefties
Pham should have been dfa jnstead
In typical fashion, Cruz strikes out looking to start the game
The Bucs still lead the majors in called third strikes
This hitting coach needs to teach these players the strike zone
down by 5, with only 3 singles, there’s a good chance of being shut out again for the 8th time this season
This offense is pathetic
Carmen should have pitched himself out of the rotation and Bubba should be promoted
He can’t be any worse
Let’s see there was Moe,Shemp and Curly Horowitz. Is Spencer the 4th Horowitz stooge?
it’s obvious that Cruz’ lower back is still an issue and probably should have been placed in the IL the Saturday before last but this incompetent management waited too long to make a decision
Sending Gorski down when Horowitz was activated will come back to haunt this team and it’s worth repeating, Carmen belongs in a bullpen not in the rotation
Here’s a question? I’ve always said that Pittsburgh has and is a great baseball town. History provides that answer. You put out an exciting and competitive team, along with a great field,people go to games. Outside of the gimmicks that ownership provides to get people to come,I see no reason why anyone would attend a pirate game. Putting aside a great venue for a family on a beautiful day.
Pirate owner nutting has to be concerned with attendance. The product on the field is do atrocious that he probably couldn’t give tickets away. I always laughed at the notion that nutting is only concerned about money.
But now my answer has to be YES that’s all he’s concerned about. Shame such a rich heritage of the pirates franchise is being blackened by this pathetic management team.
I’m not really one for anyone or any organization to look into the pirates. But the league has to do something about owners like nutting. The brand of baseball that they put on the field is pathetic. From Kelly to Cherrington to all the coaches and the front office, should all be terminated after the season is over.
I believe that every coach and the General Manager is on the last year of their contracts, so you probably will get your wish if this team doesn’t improve and quickly
Otherwise, the lineup in today’s game basically stays the same as last night except Davis is in place of Bart and bats last and Canario is in left field
I do have to give some credit to Kelly for not playing Pham again but Cruz strikes out too much for batting lead off
No hitting development since 80’s! Don’t know what happened? This goes back before Cam Bonifay!This goes back to Harding Peterson,Sid Thrift area!! That’s when hitting development stopped!! Parker,Zisk,Oliver,Stennett,Cash goes on and on. That’s the reason and still not developing any. Plain stupid!
even the veterans stink. Phillies’ rookie pitcher has already struck out 5 Pirates in just 2 innings
We’re probably going to lose again today and at some point, someone needs to be held responsible for this never ending offensive struggles
Whether it be the hitting coach who has been worse this year than last or Cherington for putting together a failure of a team
These guys still don’t know the strike zone and that can’t just be the batters’ fault
Brian Giles, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall might be exceptions to the lack of player development
Ryan Doumit and Rob Mackoviak included but you’re right about how awful player development has become through the years
If you spotted the pirates the bases loaded. No outs. 3-0 count on the batter. And the pirates would find a way to not score a run.
Looks like another superb fitting bring wasted by skenes
Cruz, a player who should not be batting lead off has already struck out twice in just 3 innings
Cruz has struck out 6 times out of his last 7 plate appearances with 3 more already today
Giles came from Cleveland! Other 2 OK,but not close to my list! Plus I can name more! Just not there anymore.
I forgot about Giles coming from Cleveland
9 strikeouts in just 6 innings for the Phillies rookie pitcher
If I was Kelly, I would be embarrassed and as a devout Pirate fan, I am not just embarrassed, I am ashamed
All we have to show for this game so far is 5 singles and haven’t drawn a walk
I vividly remember when they hired the hitting coach from Toronto, IKF bragged about how good of a hitting coach he was when IKF played under him at Toronto
If IKF thinks this guy is a good hitting coach, I would hate to see a bad hitting coach
first and second, no outs, Frazier tries to lay down a bunt to advance the runners and fails
Not only does the player development stink so does playing small ball and basic baseball fundamentals
It’s a shame that a very good game pitched by Skenes will probably be a complete waste because our offense stinks so much
Cruz struck out four times in this game. Someone remind me again why he should be the lead off hitter?
9 plate appearances, he’s struck out 8 times and we now have struck out as a team, 11 times through 7 innings
Someone must be held accountable for this pathetic offense
Under Kelly, nothing has changed
NOTHING!
It definitely seems like Kelly is a Shelton clone
Knowing that Bednar would have pitched the 9th if they had scored a run, why didn’t Kelly use Bart to pinch hit for Davis and Triolo for Cruz against the Phillies’ lefty?
They had 3 right handed hitters on the bench and not one was used in an attempt to score a run.
After Cruz had struck out three times against 2 righties, what made Kelly think Cruz would get on base against a lefty?
Shelton management’ style
Yea again plain stupid! Frazier needs to go to bench on that bone head play! No excuses!! Wasn’t gonna drink today but this getting worse and worse!!
There better be trades or trade coming soon, or show Ben the door joke!!
He was quoted in the PG as saying he didn’t see the need for anything “drastic” at this stage, that they “have some guys coming back”. Horwitz. Nick. Endy. Yeah, that’s reason for hope. Sheesh
The time to make moves was last off season. They did nothing. This was predictable
I didn’t think it was possible for a team to kill my love of baseball but here we are
Endy hadn’t yet proven that he can hit major league pitching and both he and Gonzalez just started their rehab assignments.
They probably won’t be available for another few weeks
Ben’s trying to save face by claiming that the calvary will be returning soon
They need more than just 2 players to get this offense going in the right direction
Ben recently said that he was “ the man for the job “ so it’s highly likely that he will be gone by season’s end if not sooner if this team doesn’t start winning soon
14 strikeouts by this pathetic offense
What a joke of a team they are
Skenes pitches a masterpiece, gives up just 4 hits, 1 run, strikeouts 9 and we can’t even score one single run in his defense
By the way this is the 8th time they have been shut out this season
23 consecutive games without scoring more than 4 runs
Complete joke! Starts at top! MLB needs to step in for good of game,and most importantly the fans!! Please Mark Cuban step up make offer to MLB! Make Nutting sell team.
Never gonna happen. Cuban has said as much. Nutting’s profits are too great to even consider it
Yeah, what a great rebuild this has been, completed by the Three Stooges.
Wouldn’t it be great if the fans of the Pirates could raise enough money to own the team and find someone who would work for almost nothing as the boss. Fan/owners would have to accept zero or a token return on their investment in order to put more money into coaching and especially player salaries. The math would be: the price Nutting (and the consortium of current owners) would agree to, the league and other owners’ consent to the deal, and the selling price divided by the number of willing investor fans (no private equity). I m close to retirement, I d be willing to do it.
Forbes has determined that the Pirates franchise is valued at $1.3 billion dollars
I doubt that there’s enough people locally who could afford this sum to purchase the franchise from Nutting
I hear China made Bibles and gold plated Rump watches sell at high prices
Why arent they letting this guy hit vs lefties so solak can go out there and do…
Nothing? What a waste