The Pirates may have a trade chip hiding in plain sight, and it might be Spencer Horwitz.
That idea probably won’t sit well with a lot of Pittsburgh fans, especially after the way Horwitz’s 2025 season and 2026 follow-up played out. He gave the club a strong debut in 2025, posting a 118 wRC+, then came back with a more uneven 2026 that settled at 98 wRC+.
A lot of that drop-off came after a hamstring injury and concussion in the summer. Before that stretch, he was doing what he usually does, hitting .280/.386/.455.
Afterward, he was one of the worst qualified hitters in baseball with a .464 OPS.
That kind of second-half slide has dragged his value down to a low point, which is usually the wrong time to move a player in his prime. But Horwitz still comes with real selling points.
He won’t be arbitration eligible until 2027, and his projected salary is just $2.5 million. If he gets back to anything close to his first-half form, that’s a bargain for a player who remains under team control for four more seasons as a Super Two.
And that’s exactly the kind of profile that can draw interest from teams looking for offense. The Pirates can point to the upside, the cost, and the control. That matters even more for clubs that don’t already have Ryan O’Hearn locked in as their starting first baseman.
The bigger issue for Pittsburgh is fit. Horwitz has been a good hitter when healthy, getting on base and avoiding strikeouts at a level that helps cover for limited power. The problem is that profile doesn’t translate all that cleanly at first base, especially now that his defense there took a step backward in 2026, when he finished at -2 Defensive Runs Saved and -5 Outs Above Average.
It’s not as if Horwitz and O’Hearn can’t share a roster. They did it for long stretches in 2026. But O’Hearn really isn’t a viable corner outfielder anymore, and unless the Pirates want to try Horwitz at second base in place of Brandon Lowe, keeping both bats around likely means parking one of them at DH every day.
That’s where the roster math starts to get awkward. Both players bring only modest power, and that matters even more if Lowe leaves in free agency. In that scenario, the Pirates would be left trying to squeeze too much out of too little from the same part of the lineup.
Maybe O’Hearn would make more sense as the trade candidate, since he’s entering the final season of his contract. But moving him after only one year would be a tough look for a team that already has trouble drawing marquee free agents. So if something has to give with the way Ben Cherington has built this roster, Horwitz is at least part of the conversation.
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There is a hard deadline hanging over all of it. Pittsburgh has a narrow stretch to keep shaping the roster before the current labor agreement expires on Dec. 1, a date that could freeze the market if a lockout follows. The Pirates still have clear needs to sort through, from the infield to the bullpen, and they also have a key internal decision to make with Brandon Lowe. For a club that has finally built some momentum, the next few weeks may determine whether this becomes a one-year step forward or the start of something bigger. [Read more 🡒]