Tampa Bay Rays – How Quickly Will They Reach For a New Lowe?

The Tampa Bay Rays minor league organization is littered with Lowes.  Brothers Josh and Nathaniel Lowe along with Brandon Lowe are blazing a trail for Tampa Bay.

If you go searching through the upper three levels of the Tampa Bay Rays minor league system, you’ll find a bunch of Lowes.  For the Charlotte Stone Crabs, it’s Josh. For the Montgomery Biscuits, it’s brother Nathaniel.  Finally, in Durham, you’ll find Brandon Lowe.  All can swing the bat and seem poised to make a run for Tampa Bay

Brandon Lowe

The oldest of the three Lowe hitters is Brandon and is currently playing a starring role for the Durham Bulls.  In fact, in the past four games, Brandon has blasted five home runs while driving in nine.  The 23-year-old was drafted in the 2015 draft in the third round out of Maryland.  Since then, he has made a beeline for the majors, playing a season in Bowling Green before splitting the 2017 season in Charlotte and Montgomery.  This season, he started in Montgomery but made the leap to Durham when Jake Bauers got his big league ticket.

Overall, Brandon Lowe has represented himself well at the plate.  This season, he is slashing a .285/.386/.527 stat line with 13 home runs and 51 RBI.  While he is rated as the ninth best 2B prospect in baseball by mlb.com, the Rays are using him more and more in the outfield, which demonstrates the glut of infielders that they accumulated.  With his rapid rise through the organization, it’s completely within the realm of possibility that we could see him later this season at the Trop.

Brothers Nathaniel and Josh Lowe

Following Brandon in the Lowe pipeline are brothers Nathaniel and Josh Lowe, each drafted in the 2016 draft.  Josh in the first round (13th overall) straight out of high school and Nathaniel in the 13th round out of Mississippi State.

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Nathaniel is currently playing in Montgomery after playing the first 56 games of the season in Charlotte.  Overall, he’s probably the hottest of the three hitters, hitting .359 between the two levels with 14 home runs and 18 doubles while fielding first base at a .995 clip, which would rank him just outside the top 10 in the big leagues.  But, like Brandon, he may need to explore other positions as Jake Bauers would seem to be staking claim to first base for years to come in Tampa Bay.

Last, but certainly not least, is Josh Lowe currently playing for the Charlotte Stone Crabs.  As the high school draftee, Josh was the least seasoned of the Lowes coming into the Rays organization.  So far with the Stone Crabs, he is hitting only .222 with four home runs.  But, considering he just turned 20 in February, he’s a few steps behind Nathaniel and Brandon in gaining experience at better competition.