{"id":100512,"date":"2025-05-17T18:39:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T22:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=100512"},"modified":"2025-05-17T18:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T22:39:39","slug":"pirates-activate-spencer-horwitz-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/17\/pirates-activate-spencer-horwitz-injured-list\/","title":{"rendered":"At Long Last, Pirates Activate First Baseman Horwitz from Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will activate first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/horwisp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Horwitz<\/a> from the injured list for Saturday night\u2019s game in Philadelphia. So said <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/15\/pirates-manager-kelly-is-no-shelton\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">manager<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/kellydo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Kelly<\/a> to a gaggle of reporters before the game, according to Colin Beazley of the <em>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.<\/em> It will be Horwitz\u2019s long-awaited Pirates debut. The left-handed-batting Horwitz, 27, was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays via the Cleveland Guardians in a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/11\/pirates-guardians-ortiz-horwitz-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">three-team trade<\/a> last December. He was in Saturday&#8217;s starting lineup, hitting fifth.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Per Pirates manager Don Kelly, the Pirates are activating 1B Spencer Horwitz today. To clear a spot, they optioned 1B\/OF Matt Gorski.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colin Beazley (@colin_beazley) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/colin_beazley\/status\/1923836924252315723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pirates Activate Spencer Horwitz from IL<\/h2>\n<p>On February 12, it was announced that Horwitz would undergo <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/12\/pirates-horwitz-wrist-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">surgery<\/a> to repair his right wrist. At the time of the trade, the Pirates were aware of the issue but went on with the trade anyway. The expected recovery period was six to eight weeks. We\u2019re well past that point. Horwitz won\u2019t even get a chance to play for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a>, who the Pirates <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/08\/pirates-fire-manager-derek-shelton-don-kelly-replacement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">fired<\/a> on May 8. In any event, after completing his minor league rehab assignment, Horwitz is finally ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>Horwitz had a brief 15-game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaiburcoffee.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cup of coffee<\/a> for Toronto in 2023. The Jays recalled him on June 8, 2024, and he spent the rest of 2024 with the big club. In 2024, he hit .265\/.357\/.433, 12 HR, and 40 RBI in 97 games. In the field, he split his time almost equally between first and second base. The Pirates plan to use Horwitz strictly as a first baseman. Initial impressions were that there were no plans to platoon him with a right-handed hitter. We\u2019ll see whether that\u2019s still the plan.<\/p>\n<h3>Into the Hornet\u2019s Nest<\/h3>\n<p>According to Baseball Reference, Horwitz\u2019s 162-game average figures translate to 19 home runs. Furthermore, in six minor league seasons plus his just-completed rehab, he\u2019s hit .305\/.410\/.468. The Pirates would welcome that kind of production with open arms. They need it. The Pirates have been one of the worst-hitting teams in all of baseball. The team carries an overall slash line of .213\/.281\/.347 and has scored 139 runs. Only the Rockies have scored fewer runs in the majors. Pittsburgh has received little offense from first base, traditionally a power position.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Horwitz, he\u2019s walking right into a hornet\u2019s nest. An increasingly ornery fan base is growing more and more impatient with the Pirates\u2019 futility with the bats. A segment of the fan base believes the Pirates overpaid to obtain him. Horwitz will have to hit right out of the gate to win the Pirates fans over. The bat might be coming alive. Beginning his rehab assignment with Double-A Altoona, he was 2-for-18. It got better when he moved up to Triple-A Indianapolis. There, he was 10-for-31, including a three-hit game on May 13.<\/p>\n<h3>Down Goes Gorski<\/h3>\n<p>To make room for Horwitz on the active roster, rookie first baseman\/outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gorskma01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Gorski<\/a> has been optioned back to Indianapolis. In 15 games since being <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/24\/pirates-call-up-prospects-send-down-suwinski-roster-moves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">called up<\/a> on April 24, he was 8-for-42 with two home runs and a triple. Additionally, he provided good outfield defense, including robbing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schwaky01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Schwarber<\/a> of a home run on Friday night. While his .195 average left something to be desired, more likely he\u2019s simply a victim of a numbers game, or maybe of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a>\u2019s $4.025 million contract.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates will activate first baseman Spencer Horwitz from the injured list for Saturday night\u2019s game in Philadelphia. So said manager Don Kelly to a gaggle of reporters before the game, according to Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It will be Horwitz\u2019s long-awaited Pirates debut. The left-handed-batting Horwitz, 27, was acquired from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":100530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[3160,28961,516,28332,28345,1087],"class_list":["post-100512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-derek-shelton","tag-don-kelly","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-matt-gorski","tag-spencer-horwitz","tag-tommy-pham"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100512"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100532,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100512\/revisions\/100532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}