Spencer Horwitz deserves better than his All-Rookie Second Team finish

Spencer Horwitz made a name for himself with the Toronto Blue Jays this season. While most baseball fans across the league will have never heard of him, he’s starting to gain some traction outside of Toronto (and Canada) and has been recognized for his efforts in his rookie season.

Horwitz was recently named to MLB Pipeline’s 2024 All-Rookie Second Team at first base after a successful initial campaign. However, there's a case to be made that the 26-year-old could and should have been named to the First Team ahead of the Chicago Cubs' Michael Busch — if only he had played more games.

Spencer Horwitz deserves better than his All-Rookie Second Team finish

Blue Jays fans familiar with the team’s minor leagues and the up-and-coming prospects had been waiting for the former 24th-round draft pick to get the call before he finally debuted in 2023. His brief 15-game stint didn’t do his abilities justice. He showed off his talent for getting on base but didn't get enough time to show off his sneaky power.

After annihilating minor league pitching to start the year, he finally got another chance in the big leagues this season. All it took was a longer look in the majors for everyone to fully appreciate what the talented hitter brings to the table.

By the time Horwitz made his 2024 season debut on June 8, Busch had already appeared in 59 games for the Cubs. The Chicago rookie, and former first-round pick, ended up with 152 games amassing 2.3 fWAR. Horwitz was right behind him with 1.9 fWAR, but in only 97 games.

Even with the discrepancy in playing time, which inevitably led to Busch logging more counting stats like home runs, runs and RBI, the Blue Jays rookie outplayed his Cubs counterpart in a whole host of other offensive categories.

Horwitz finished the year with a better wRC+ (127 to 119), wOBA (.344 to .336), batting average (.265 to .248), OBP (.357 to .335) and OPS (.790 to .775).

Forget just among rookies. If you sort the stats by the all MLB first basemen, Horwitz's name pops up with some impressive stars in a couple of categories.

His .357 on-base percentage ranked sixth among first basemen with a minimum of 350 plate appearances (Horwitz had 381). He's behind household names like teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper. His .344 wOBA ranked fourth behind those three superstars.

That's some pretty heady company to be keeping.

Projecting Horwitz's numbers with another 50 games or so under his belt isn't exactly a scientific method by any means, but the argument can be made that with similar playing time as Busch, there's a chance that he'd be close enough in counting stats and would have accumulated enough fWAR to earn First Team honors.

Unfortunately, with the offseason upon us, all we can do is wait to see what 2025 brings for the talented lefty hitter. Hopefully, he gets a full season in the Blue Jays lineup.