Josh Lowe almost ready to make return to Rays lineup, could ignite a fire in team

The Tampa Bay Rays have been without Josh Lowe in their lineup since the 2024 season began. The Rays' outfielder is currently recovering from an oblique injury that he suffered leading up to opening day.

Even though the 2024 baseball season is still very young, Tampa Bay needs some help. More offense would be a good place to start and that is something Lowe can provide. He had a career season in 2023 as he batted .292 with a .835 OPS. He added 20 home runs and 83 RBI and was a big time steal threat on the base paths with 32 on the season.

Lowe recently began a rehabilitation assignment with the Durham Bulls over the weekend, playing in a game on Friday and going 0-3. It was his first time getting back on the field to play baseball of any kind since getting placed on the injured list this spring.

Recently, play-by-play announcer for the Durham Bulls Patrick Kinas caught up with the major league outfielder and discussed his rehabilitation assignment ahead of his return to the Tampa Bay Rays.

""I'm looking forward to being back on the field and looking forward to getting back into some live action...I'm just itching to be playing more baseball.""

- Josh Lowe

The Tampa Bay Rays are itching for Lowe to be back in their clubhouse as well. The team is towards the bottom of the league in a lot of hitting categories such as strikeout rate (22nd), runs per game (22nd) and RBI per game (25th). The Rays also rank 24th in Major League Baseball with a -26 run differential.

Lowe did a great job at keeping his strikeout rate low in 2023 as well. The outfielder struck out in 124 at-bats out of 466 (24.8%) which ranked in the 32nd percentile of Major League Baseball.

He was also the team leader in stolen bases and was second in RBI last season making him an offensive threat the Rays could use. This would be big as they have not seen the production they necessarily want out of their top hitters like Randy Arozarena and Yandy Diaz. Arozarena in particular has just two hits in his last five games.

Tampa Bay also has just three runs in their first two games against the Detroit Tigers that have resulted in losses as it shows just how lacking the offense can be at times. This offense can be down right putrid.

The Rays are expecting Lowe to make his return sometime around the end of April. Tampa Bay will have two series on the road to end the month against the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. He could possibly be the start at Chicago and try to give the Rays the aforementioned spark that they need to turn their season in the right direction.