Tigers' latest decision proves Pirates jumped the gun on questionable first base trade

The Pittsburgh Pirates' trade with the Cleveland Guardians for first baseman Spencer Horwitz was already questionable at best, and it's starting to look even more questionable by the day.

Since the Pirates traded for Horwitz, several other, better, first basemen have come off the market via trade or free agency. Former Guardians All-Star Josh Naylor was dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks, veteran Paul Goldschmidt inked a one-year dal with the New York Yankees and Nathaniel Lowe was traded from the Texas Rangers to the Washington Nationals, just to name a few.

Now that the Detroit Tigers have signed slugging second baseman Gleyber Torres to a one-year deal and shifted Colt Keith over to first base, it looks like Spencer Torkelson – a young, controllable first baseman who happens to be a former No. 1 overall pick – could be hitting the trade market as well.

Tigers' latest decision proves Pirates jumped the gun on questionable first base trade

No matter how the Pirates' front office tries to spin it – and you know they will – they gave up too much, too fast for Horwitz. If you ask general manager Ben Cherington and company, they'll tell you that the reason Horwitz was worth trading a versatile starter in Luis Ortiz plus a pair of left-handed pitching prospects is because he's not yet arbitration eligible and still has six years of team control.

But those years of team control are only valuable if the player is actually, you know, good. Sorry, but a 27-year-old rookie with 112 games of MLB experience – who, by the the Pirates' own admission, is merely a platoon player – hardly feels like someone worth getting excited about having for six more years.

Now, Torkelson would hardly be a perfect solution to the Pirates' first base problem, but it's reasonable to believe that he'd be a better option than Horwitz. For starters, he has more than twice as many games of MLB experience, and he can actually put the ball over the fence. Oh, and he also comes with four years of team control.

The Tigers need starting pitching in a big way. The Pirates have no shortage of pitchers. A package like the one Pittsburgh traded to Cleveland for Horwitz would almost certainly have piqued Detroit's interest. It's hard not to feel like the Pirates majorly botched this one; but hey, let's see if those extra two years of team control they got with Horwitz were really worth it.

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