Morning Rundown: Spencer Horwitz to miss 6-8 weeks, Tommy Pham to play left field
Horwitz recently had surgery, Tommy Pham will play left field.
After breaking late Tuesday night that Spencer Horwitz would miss some time with an injury, more details came out on Wednesday regarding the Pirates’ first baseman.
The team’s Twitter account stated that he had a procedure on his right wrist and that they expect a full recovery in 6-8 weeks. John Perrotto mentioned the surgery was to repair the extender in his right wrist.
In his meeting with the media, General Manager Ben Cherington said that the team knew of ‘symptoms’ he was having with the wrist but still felt comfortable making the trade.
When it came to who might replace Horwitz, Cherington mentioned that the focus would be internal and mentioned Darick Hall and DJ Stewart—both in camp as NRI. He also brought up Jared Triolo, who played some first base last year and didn’t throw out the possibility of someone with little to no experience at the position.
He mentioned that Bryan Reynolds would focus on the outfield right now and that Endy Rodriguez wouldn’t be an option either.
Horwitz was acquired from the Cleveland Guardians (who had traded for him with Toronto) during the Winter Meetings in exchange for Luis Ortiz, Michael Kennedy, and Josh Hartle.
In his most extensive playing time in the majors, Horwitz batted .265/.357/.433 with 12 home runs and a wRC+ of 127 in 97 games last year.
Derek Shelton met with the media, and it was discovered that Bryan Reynolds would be moving to right field, and newly acquired Tommy Pham would line up in left.
Analytically speaking, Reynolds was one of the worst outfielders in baseball last year, especially when it came to his range. The move over to right should limit how much ground he has to cover, especially at PNC Park.
Pham isn’t much better in the outfield when it comes to range, but at least according to Statcast, it does come out as an upgrade.
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Here are some take-aways from spring training practice today.
1) Nice to see Oneill Cruz report early. Not everyone does that.
2) Konnor Griffin was hitting some line drives over the fence in batting practice. His throws from short to first was like a cannon. Something special.
3) Matt Gorski was taking some practice at first base. Peguero a little practice at third, but mostly at short. Oneill Cruz practiced with the outfielders, but someone said he still took some grounders at short before I got there.
4) Endy Rodriguez was hitting some ropes in batting practice. He looked healthy.
- If anyone has anything specific you want me to look for tomorrow, let me know.
ready to be hurt again, but the updated bat tracking data has me all in on a Suwinski bounce back.
The swing metrics were nearly identical.
The only thing that changed between '23 and '24 was he got way *more* aggressive last year, and to the chagrin of every Pirate fan, that simply isn't a path to success in modern big league ball.
Start fresh and go back to his approach that worked.