Pirates’ Spencer Horvitz ready for liftoff after Blue Jays originally appeared on The Sporting News Click here to add Sports News as your go-to source.
Spencer Horwitz was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Pittsburgh Pirates midway through last season.
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No, none of us noticed how good he was since moving.
“Here’s perhaps our favorite fun fact about the 2025 season: Which team has the best first-base offense in the final two months of the season?” MLB.com’s Mike Petriello wrote in a new article Saturday. “You might be thinking, the Blue Jays (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.), the Dodgers (Freddie Freeman), the Athletics (Nick Kurtz) or any other club that has a star right out of the gate…well, no. This is pirate. Yes, really. Horwitz still counts as a breakout possibility because you have absolutely no idea when it happens. “
Horvitz always had some promising hitting indicators as he emerged through the minor leagues.
But being this good isn’t something anyone would necessarily see coming.
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“He hit just .232/.298/.329 in the All-Star Game,” Petriello wrote. “But the rest of July into August was very good (.833 OPS) and September was terrific (1.089 OPS), and all of a sudden Horwitz went from an afterthought to a particularly interesting piece in a lineup that Pittsburgh hopes to reinvigorate.”
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The Buccaneers have added a lot of players this offseason, which isn’t how they usually operate, so that has created a lot of excitement.
If Horwitz’s improvements are real, this is almost like another addition.
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Keep an eye on him. This could be one of the biggest unknowns for the Buccaneers as they compete for the division title in 2026.
