Spencer Horwitz to miss Spring Training following surgery.

While specifics on the injury are unclear, according to Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Horwitz underwent surgery at some point and remains in a cast.

Horwitz's expected timeline for recovery is six to eight weeks, confirming that Horwitz will miss at least some time to start the season.

It's an alarming start for the Pirates as camp gets underway.

Pittsburg acquired the 27-year-old Horwitz at the Winter Meetings in what amounted to a de facto three-team trade involving the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Guardians.

The Pirates sent back-end starter Luis Ortiz and a pair of pitching prospects to Cleveland for Horwitz, whom the Guardians had acquired from the Blue Jays hours before in the Andrés Giménez deal.

Clearly this is not an ideal beginning to his Bucs tenure.

Horwitz is the favorite for the first base job once he's healthy. The Pirates are betting on his minor league numbers and relatively small-sample production in the big leagues.

Horwitz had an impressive .265/.357/.433 showing across 381 MLB plate appearances last year.

He connected on 12 homers while showing strong strike zone awareness. The lefty hitter walked at an 11% clip while striking out just 18.4% of the time.

Plate discipline has been Horwitz's calling card throughout his career. He has posted excellent minor league numbers, including a .316/.433/.471 slash over parts of three Triple-A seasons.

The statistical profile is robust, but most scouting reports have been less bullish on Horwitz's bat translating against big league pitching over the long haul.

He's a middling defender who fits best at first base, though he logged nearly 300 innings at second base for Toronto last season.

There's a lot of pressure on the bat if he's to be an average or better regular at first base. Horwitz doesn't have huge raw power.

Last year's 16 combined homers between Triple-A and MLB represented a career high.

SOURCE:
mlbtraderumors