2-7-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
It’s been a fairly tepid off-season for the Pirates. After spending $33.2M on free agents last year and entering the season pledging that the goal was to win the division, they limped down the stretch en route to another 5th place finish.
This off-season, they have been less aspirational with acquisitions – mostly limited to resigning Andrew McCutchen to his usual rate, inking some relievers to supplement the pen and this past week’s “big splash” signing of Tommy Pham.
The only notable move they made since the season ended was trading RHP Luis Ortiz with southpaw pitching prospects Michael Kennedy and Josh Hartle to the Cleveland Guardians for Spencer Horwitz. And while fans at the time had mixed feelings about trading two of the team’s top 30 prospects as well as a starting pitcher coming off a year where he pitched career-high 135.2 innings with a 3.32 ERA, there is reason to think this could be a BIG win for the Pirates side.
For starters, the team traded from a position of depth in order to fill a clear need at the major league level. Kennedy and Hartle, while touted prospects, were far behind many other pitchers in the team’s depth chart and have a combined 132 minor league innings pitched – none above A+ ball.
Additionally, Ortiz’s breakout season paid dividends for the team in 2024 but was bolstered by strong batted ball luck (.243 BABIP) that likely regresses to the mean if he stayed in Pittsburgh for another season.
As for Horwitz, he will look to bring stability to a position which has been a black hole for the team the past five years.
What does he bring to the table?
| MLB Hitters in 2024 with 11+% walk rate and under 18.5% K rate (minimum 350 plate appearances): | BB% | K% |
| Juan Soto | 18.1 | 16.7 |
| Ha-seong Kim | 12.3 | 16.4 |
| Freddie Freeman | 12.2 | 16.7 |
| Isaac Paredes | 11.9 | 16.4 |
| Mookie Betts | 11.8 | 11.0 |
| Jurickson Profar | 11.4 | 15.4 |
| Nolan Schanuel | 11.2 | 17.0 |
| Ketel Marte | 11.1 | 18.4 |
| Spencer Horwitz | 11.0 | 18.4 |
That’s a small sample size but still some elite company for Horwitz and is a positive for a team that posted the 5th highest strikeout rate last season with a 24.7% and only posted an 8% walk rate as a team – good for 13th lowest in MLB.
Horwitz’s profile doesn’t indicate a ton of power with a 5’10/190 frame but he hit 12 long balls last year in just 381 plate appearances – which would equal approximately 19 over a 600 plate appearance pace. And projections view him pretty favorably as he has the top wRC+ on the team per ZIPS.
If this comes to fruition, that would be the highest offensive production from the first base position since Josh Bell’s 2019 breakout year, when he slugged 33 homers and posted a 133 wRC+.
While his bat speed and average exit velocity numbers are not ideal, what Horwitz excels at is making contact consistently and limiting soft contact as his 2.7% poor/weak hit rate in 2024 was equal to that of sluggers Bryce Harper and Julio Rodriguez.
Now, that’s not to say Horwitz is on the level of either of those two but there is some serious potential in his bat if given the opportunity, and he shoved down the stretch last year as he slashed .299/.386/.494 over his final 101 plate appearances from August 30th through the end of the season.
https://twitter.com/BlueJays/status/1832579368905834972/video/1
Coming over to the Pirates, Horwitz will continue to work with Pittsburgh’s new hitting coach, Matt Hague, and have open range to take hold of the first base position – a place this team BADLY needs to produce offensively. If he can provide a 2-3 WAR season in 2025, that could be a monumental swing in the standings for the Buccos.
Steel City Pirates 