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It was round PiratesFest final yr throughout his ramp as much as the season that Spencer Horwitz’s proper wrist began to flare up. Whereas he didn’t realize it on the time, that will be the beginning of a sequence that will result in surgical procedure, lacking the primary month and a half of the season after which a hunch along with his new membership.
This yr at PiratesFest, the infielder was all smiles.
“It feels nice to be wholesome,” Horwitz mentioned Friday. “That is the healthiest I’ve felt in a very long time, knock on wooden, and I feel the offseason has gone nice with power ranges and what I wished to work on with baseball hitting and defensively. I am simply excited to point out it on the sphere.”
Horwitz put collectively a nice season in 2025, hitting .272 with 11 house runs and 51 RBIs in 411 plate appearances. Even along with his late begin, his 1.6 WAR was second amongst Pirates place gamers, in accordance with Baseball-Reference.
He’s aiming for extra this yr. Defensively, he’s getting ready to play each first and second base. Offensively, he’s accomplished bat velocity coaching and tried to construct common power. Each might yield extra pop.
Even when he simply replicates his 2025 outcomes, he ought to slot in properly right into a lineup that appears extra promising than a yr in the past. That early-season hunch he had final yr also needs to be a factor of the previous.
A few of these struggles had been well being associated, getting again his timing after lacking the beginning of the season. A few of it was mechanical, excelling within the second half of the season as soon as he opened up his stance and targeted on ensuring his path took him towards the middle of the sphere.
And a few of it, he’ll admit, was psychological. It’s why that late-season push, the place he had a .916 OPS after the All-Star break, was a “weight off my shoulders.”
“I put quite a lot of stress on myself early, being the one acquisition final yr,” Horwitz mentioned. “I wished to assist this crew so dangerous, and I feel I did a poor job of that at first, simply attempting to do an excessive amount of. But in addition with the damage, new crew – it was rather a lot for me actually.”
The Pirates went into the 2024 offseason with excessive hopes, and whereas the Horwitz commerce appears to be like like a strong transfer now, it additionally ended up being the one main acquisition they made that winter. Different additions had been principally veterans on one-year offers, which turned out to be not sufficient. The Pirates’ offense struggled mightily, and whereas Horwitz led the crew with a .787 OPS, it wasn’t sufficient to maintain the Pirates out of the cellar in principally each offensive stat that mattered.
This offseason was a unique story. The offense wanted a lift, and the Pirates traded for Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum from the Rays and signed Ryan O’Hearn. They’re nonetheless in the marketplace searching for methods to enhance additional, however including two All-Stars in Lowe and O’Hearn ought to give the lineup extra size and upside.
“I feel they each add much-needed depth and pop to this lineup,” Horwitz mentioned.
We don’t know the place supervisor Don Kelly goes to pencil Horwitz into the lineup – neither does Horwitz, for what it’s price – however the entire objective this offseason was to enhance the lineup. A few of that was going to be exterior, but in addition maximizing the gamers they already had in home. A deeper lineup ought to assist make that attainable.
“I feel including these two guys, Brandon and Ryan, they’re two middle-of-the-order guys and that provides quite a lot of depth to our lineup,” Horwitz mentioned. “I feel final yr I hit seventh twice. I may be beginning the yr hitting seventh. I may be beginning the yr hitting first or second. I do not assume that is a success on my potential, I feel that is a blessing that we’ve a lot expertise now.
“I feel Ryan, Brandon, Bryan [Reynolds], Oneil [Cruz] – all of them – we’re simply tremendous excited to have the ability to lean on one another. If any person’s having an off day, we all know the man behind us or in entrance of us will decide us up.”
