Spencer Horwitz Injury Is a Huge Blow to the Pirates

I'm going to start this episode off by rattling off some quick stats.

This is the Pirates team OPS for their first baseman by year since 2021.

In 2021, it was a 693 OPS.

2022, a 601.

2023, they signed Carlos Santana, 775.

2024, he walks, goes down to 675.

2025, 734, and this year, 795.

So why am I talking about a 102-point swing in OPS over a five-year period?

Because that's the Spencer Horwitz effect.

That's why you bring in someone like him.

You make the big trade.

You give up controllable players.

Because he's not just going to be a one-year mercenary.

He is going to be your first baseman for years to come.

And he can continue to grow and develop and thrive in that role.

And he has.

And now, like too many of the other big bats in this lineup, he is now on the injured list.

Good morning, and welcome to OffBeat here on North Shore Nine, presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf, and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

Spencer Horwitz was removed from Wednesday's game early, and Thursday's announcement that he was going on the injured list with a left hamstring strain wasn't really a surprise.

We don't have a timetable for how long he's out, but any amount of time is a blow.

Especially since Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz are still on the injured list.

Now, Konnor Griffin is on a rehab assignment.

He is on the mend.

He probably will be coming back sooner rather than later.

That's a break for this lineup, this offense.

But Horwitz was one of this team's top performers.

Ten home runs.

He's getting on base.

He's taking over that leadoff spot.

He has done a lot.

He was batting against lefties.

That start in Colorado against Kyle Freeland.

Say what you want about Kyle Freeland, maybe not Bede.

maybe not.

He is not the pitcher he once was.

But he's still a lefty, and Horwitz not only got the start, he was batting leadoff.

That was big.

I thought that was a good indicator of, okay, this is how much he has grown as a player, as a hitter, and how much trust there is in this guy.

The Pirates put a video on social media on Thursday where they just asked players around the room, hey, who are you voting for in the All-Star game, for the All-Star game?

And the majority of the people said Brandon Lowe.

And you get it.

He's hitting 19 home runs.

You can make a very legitimate case he has been the National League's top second baseman this year.

And even if you don't want to make that case, he should be going to Philadelphia.

Pure merit, he should be going to Philadelphia.

But I don't know if he will.

He should.

The person who got the second most votes in that very informal but a good gauge for the room was Spencer Horwitz.

And no, I don't think he was going to get, he didn't have a shot here.

Like, he has had a really good season, but first base is crowded.

He's still viewed more as a platoon, at least how the league views him.

He never really had a shot.

But whenever the people in the room who play every day and see what he puts in every day, they put him in the same categories.

Like, wow, for how much he has meant to this team and who deserves the league-wide recognition.

That should tell you how important he is to this team.

And he is out for an indefinite amount of time.

Now, if there is any good news, it's Ryan O'Hearn is a really good defensive first baseman.

I think if Ryan O'Hearn played first base every day, he would be nominated for a gold glove.

So, it's not like they're trying, their hair is on fire.

They don't have anyone.

They can play first base.

Josh Van Meter is going to go there and he's not going to touch the bag.

No, we're not talking about that type of stuff right now.

It's, they have a very capable first baseman.

But that also means now you've got two guys in the outfield who, weren't on your own, weren't starters to start the year.

Jake Mangum has been getting a ton of playing time in center field and he has been very hot lately.

Jake Mangum has picked the absolute best time to swing a really hot bat.

No Oneil Cruz.

Don Kelly talked about it this week in one of his availabilities about how he, whenever he was a player, there'd be days whenever he'd be playing third base instead of Miguel Cabrera.

It'd be like, I can't be Miguel Cabrera.

I can only be my best me.

Jake Mangum has been his best him over the last couple weeks.

That's been huge for this outfield.

And you look at Tyler Callihan.

He's been swinging a pretty good bat.

If he is going to be, if you assume it's a platoon with him and Valdez, that's not bad for the short term.

You give Callihan some regular at-bats whenever, I've been impressed with what I've seen.

I think he has shown something here.

I don't mind giving him some runway.

And Valdez is someone that I'm high on in general.

I don't know if he's quite major league ready yet.

13 months ago, he was still in high A.

So this has been a pretty rapid rise for him.

But he has shown he can impact the baseball.

I don't mind giving him some reps there.

So in terms of, like, do they have hitters, there is some depth.

Losing Spencer Horwitz is not catastrophic in the same way as whenever Konnor Griffin went on the injured list.

And you looked at it's like, well, Nick Gonzales is playing third base, so that pretty much means he and Jared Triolo are going to be your left side of the infield every day.

There's not really another option there.

Here they do have some options.

They do have some flexibility.

They can work things around.

Callihan can play some first base also.

If O'Hare needs a day off or a DH day or whatever, they have some internal options.

And even if you want to take this one step further, assuming Konnor Griffin is back real soon, you bat him lead off.

Like, this is his opportunity.

Like, assuming he has, he's healthy and he's ready to go.

I would just bat him lead off because I think there's a very real chance that he is the lead off hitter of the future.

It's something that he, it's somewhere in the lineup that he can make a great impact in terms of getting on base, but also showing some pops, stealing some bases, doing everything that you want a lead off hitter to do.

So if you want to look at it very black and white, yes, I think they could recreate Horwitz's production in the aggregate.

Him as a fielder, him as a hitter, where he is as a hitter.

Maybe they won't be Spencer Horwitz, the same way that Don Kelly wasn't Miguel Cabrera.

But it's not as big a chop-off as going from Miguel Cabrera to Don Kelly.

Just roasting the manager here.

Dang.

Going to give him 84 seconds to rest before I unintentionally roast him some more.

So we'll give it, we'll give Cody a little time here.

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Okay, so the Pirates can recreate a lot of Horwitz's production at the same time.

There isn't a guy with a 386 OBP walking into that door that wasn't in there already.

386 OBP and 10 home runs in half a season.

If you came into the year and said, this player, regardless of position, whoever it was, 386 OBP and 20 stolen bases, you take, or home runs, you take that.

You take that because that shows a combination of being able to get on base and impact the baseball, drive it out.

We've seen him make instant impacts with home runs, batting leadoff.

Last year, he was their best hitter, and that's not the case this year.

But he's still a better hitter than he was last year.

As we talk about this glow-up for this offense in general, Spencer Horwitz is part of it.

he was, he admitted last year that he put too much pressure on himself because he was the team's big acquisition.

And it wasn't until the second half of the year that he felt better about where his feet were.

That he was in a better spot, he wasn't putting as much pressure on himself, and he just started hitting.

And then this year, they add to the lineup.

Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz have really nice bounce-back seasons.

We see Nick Gonzales grow as a hitter.

Konnor Griffin comes up.

It becomes a really talented lineup.

And he grows even more.

Like, this is the type of player that they hoped they were getting whenever they made that trade with Cleveland.

So, he was your best hitter last year, he got better this year, and now he's on the injured list.

There is no other way to slice it.

That is a huge loss for the club.

And maybe it won't be terribly long, but it has to be a matter of weeks.

And this is a team that still doesn't have Oneil Cruz for a couple more weeks, at the very least.

They don't have Konnor Griffin back yet.

I anticipate he'll be back real soon, but you can't count the chicken before he hatches.

Spencer Horwitz has been one of those guys, without those two in the lineup, who has stepped up.

And for the first month and a half of this year, two months, this team was very lucky on the injury front.

And the last month has not been kind.

I think the Oneil Cruz and the Konnor Griffin injuries were more detrimental to the team, because of what they represented.

And the fact that there wasn't as much depth behind them.

Like I said, Oneil Cruz is their top left-handed hitter.

Konnor Griffin is their top right-handed hitter.

Spencer Horwitz is probably their second best left-handed hitter.

And that's with a team that had Ryan O'Hearn and Brandon Lowe.

He has made as much.

He has been viewed by his teammates as just about as important as Brandon Lowe and worthy of league-wide recognition.

I don't think he was going to be going to Philadelphia.

It's a shame that it's out of his hands.

And if he's going to be out for a while, then the Pirates need Jake Mangum to continue to be the type of player that he was.

They need Tyler Callihan to continue to be the type of player that he has been these last couple weeks.

It's a lot to ask.

This is a team that just every episode, we're going to talk about it.

They just need to keep their head above water.

For a while.

And we're at the midpoint of their season.

And they are the definition of barely keeping their head above water at 41 and 40.

That mission just got a lot harder without Horwitz in the mix for a while.

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All right.

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