Spencer Horwitz Is an Underrated Talent on the Pirates

Back on December 10, 2024, the Toronto Blue Jays made a blockbuster move to acquire Andrés Giménez from the Cleveland Guardians for a pair of prospects. One of the most promising players exchanged in this deal, Spencer Horwitz, had Blue Jays fans disappointed that he was heading out the door following a strong stint in the big leagues earlier that year.

However, Horwitz didn’t survive a calendar day on the Guardians’ roster, let alone play a game for Cleveland. Instead, he was almost instantly flipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates in another big trade, one that seemed to heavily favor the Guardians initially.

The Pirates sent promising young right-hander Luis Ortiz, intriguing left-handed pitching prospect Michael King, and Wake Forest standout Josh Hartle back to the club in this deal. Given the Guardians’ record of successfully developing starting pitchers with similar characteristics, it seemed like the Pirates were taking a sizable gamble on the first baseman.

Fast forward to late May of 2026, and the perception of this deal has flipped dramatically. Ortiz will likely never see an MLB mound again following issues with individual pitch gambling, and both Hartle and Kennedy are currently struggling in the minors. Meanwhile, on the flip side, Horwitz has quietly been one of the best hitters on a historically good Pirates offense to this point.

Although Horwitz has been producing at a tremendous rate, because of the strength of this Pirates offense, he’s fallen under the radar, and he certainly deserves more credit for his early successes. He’s been an integral piece of this team, and he should be recognized as such.

Let’s take a closer look at Horwitz’s success this season and give him some of the recognition he truly deserves.

Stats updated prior to games on May 26.

Horwitz’s Raw Production

When it comes to Horwitz’s excellence at the plate, you don’t have to dig too deep into the numbers to fully understand how important he’s been for this club. His numbers instantly jump off the page among both his teammates and other National League first basemen, as he’s been too good to simply ignore.

Through his first 49 games of the season, Horwitz has slashed .282/.389/.443 with five homers and a 137 wRC+, while being worth 1.1 fWAR to this point. It’s been a spectacular start to the year, and it’s the kind of production the Pirates have been searching for out of the first base position ever since Josh Bell was traded in December of 2020.

Horwitz’s plate discipline is arguably the best aspect of his game, as he’s consistently had one of the top eyes on the squad. As of the time I’m writing this, Horwitz has struck out only 13.3% of the time, which is the best mark of qualified hitters on the team by slightly over 4.0%.

Going two steps further, no Pirate last season struck out less than 16.1% of the time, which demonstrates his plate discipline even further. On top of this, Horwitz is actually walking more than he’s striking out, as his walk rate of 14.4% is the second-best mark on the 2026 Pirates.

Under the surface, Horwitz’s advanced metrics have been just as impressive, and they perfectly encapsulate his skills at the plate. While he was originally expected to slug and be a key power bat for this squad, he’s excelled at doing the opposite, becoming an elite contact threat wherever he hits in the order instead.

Currently, Horwitz is riding an absurd zone-contact rate of 94.8%, which is the best among all National League first basemen. Not only this, but it’s the sixth-best mark in the entire sport, meaning very few hitters have come close to his excellent bat-to-ball abilities.

Horwitz also has a whiff rate of 14.7%, a mark that puts him in the sport’s 94th percentile. Simply put, he hates striking out and avoids any type of swing-and-miss at all costs.

No matter which way you look at his data, Horwitz has been one of the best first basemen in the league in nearly every single category. He’s an elite contact threat and a regular spark plug for a Pirates offense that’s now capable of cashing in when runners get on base.

Horwitz’s Historical Significance

Earlier in this story, I mentioned that the Pirates have been searching for this level of production out of the first base position ever since Josh Bell was dealt to the Nationals during the 2020 offseason. In my research for this story, I discovered that Horwitz has done more than just fill this void and produce at the position; in fact, he’s off to a historic start for the Bucs.

For starters, Horwitz is on pace to finish the 2026 season with an OBP well above .380, a mark that currently leads the team by a notable margin. This hasn’t been done by a Pirates first baseman since Matt Stairs in 2003 (min. 100 games played), and it’s only happened twice since the turn of the century.

Comparing Horwitz to more than only first basemen in Pirates history, he’s the first Pirate since Bryan Reynolds in 2021 to have an OBP greater than .380, an OPS above .830, and 10 or more extra-base hits through the first 50 games of a season. The last Pirates first baseman to accomplish this feat was Josh Bell in 2019.

Since 2010, the Pirates have had just five seasons where a player posted a slash line of .280/.380/.440 or better with a 135 or higher OPS+ and 15 or more home runs. Four of these seasons belonged to Andrew McCutchen, and the fifth was Bryan Reynolds in 2021. At his current pace, Horwitz will become the sixth player to join this group, and just the second since 2020.

To put it simply, Horwitz is producing at a rate we haven’t seen in recent memory for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and at a pace we’ve barely seen in all of Pirates’ history. He has a real chance to put together a memorable campaign that’ll go down as one of the best offensive seasons by a first baseman in franchise history.

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Comparing Horwitz to First Basemen Around the League

Up until this point, we’ve established how well Spencer Horwitz is producing and how his season could compare to some legendary seasons in franchise history. Now, it’s only appropriate to compare Horwitz to his competition around the league and break down how he stands up against them.

Among qualified first basemen, Horwitz currently ranks in the top five in walk rate, strikeout rate, and OBP, as well as inside the top 10 in multiple other categories. His .389 OBP is actually the highest mark among all National League first basemen, only behind Nick Kurtz for the MLB lead.

In terms of raw production, Horwitz has had a very similar season to Freddie Freeman in many areas, even beating him in some categories. In fact, Horwitz has posted a higher wRC+, a better slash line, a better OPS, and better walk-to-strikeout numbers than the three-time World Series champion.

For reference, Freeman was ranked as the second-best first baseman in the sport on our preseason positional rankings, and the fact that Horwitz has been able to go toe-to-toe with him in many areas is very impressive. At this rate, he’s making a legitimate argument to find himself on the 2027 edition of that list.

He’s not just been one of the best hitters on the Pittsburgh Pirates, or in the National League, but the sport as a whole. Spencer Horwitz is playing like a star in the making, and it’s time he’s treated as such.