On Dec. 10, news broke that the Toronto Blue Jays were trading Jewish first baseman Spencer Horwitz to the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for second baseman Andrés Giménez and right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin. The CJN’s sports podcasters, the Menschwarmers, have some mixed feelings about that: on the one hand, Giménez is an elite middle infielder; on the other hand, it’s never easy to see your hometown Jewish player leave town.
Horwitz—who came on this podcast in March 2023, in between suiting up for Team Israel and his breakout debut with the Jays—started making a name for himself in Toronto, with a .265/.357/.433 slash line, 12 home runs and 40 RBIs in 97 games played during the 2024 season. He was drafted in 2019 but only recently began making a name for himself on the field.
And while we recorded today’s podcast episode mere hours after Horwitz was traded to Cleveland, it would be another couple hours until Cleveland turned around and traded the Baltimore native to the Pittsburgh Pirates. So you won’t hear any reference to that subsequent trade in this episode. But you will hear the Menschwarmers discuss other major Jewish-adjacent deals in the MLB, Timothée Chalamet’s surprise appearance on College GameDay, and the Israelis who’ve secretly raced in the infamous Dakar Rally.
Credits
- Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
- Producer: Michael Fraiman
- Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, “Organ Grinder Swing“)
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