The Los Angeles Angels traded for outfielder Josh Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays, and apparently the Angels are open to playing him in center field, according to GM Perry Minasian, in a piece written by Anthony Franco of MLBTradeRumors.com.
“He’s obviously had a couple of up-and-down seasons with injuries, but he’s a player we believe can play all three [outfield spots],” Minasian told reporters, including Martin Gallegos of MLB.com.
The logic behind doing this, if you can call it that, is that Lowe is a left-handed bat who would help balance the Halos’ lineup. As currently constituted, the Angels have a projected outfield mix of Mike Trout, Jorge Soler, Jo Adell and Bryce Teodosio, all of whom are right-handed hitters. The Angels traded outfielder Taylor Ward earlier in the offseason, but he hit right handed as well. The only other outfield the Angels have who hits from the left side is Wade Meckler, whom the team recently claimed off waivers from the San Francisco Giants.
This conversation ignores two important factors: (1) Minasian hasn’t really played the position, as he’s been a right field for most of his career in Tampa, and (2) Lowe has underperformed for at least two seasons now, and he’s struggled with oblique injuries on and off during that time.
To be more specific about Lowe’s history in center, he didn’t play the position at all last year, and Lowe started just two games there in 2024. He played just seven innings in each of those games, and Lowe has 156 innings of experience in center, according to Franco, so he doesn’t have enough experience to compile any relevant defensive metrics.
Lowe is 6’4” with long strides and above average speed, but his conditioning has also been an issue for the last two seasons, so it’s tough to tell exactly what the Angels are thinking here. Statcast compiles the most relevant metrics, but they’ve rated him below average in both Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved, which means his first step isn’t all that good.
The Angels used outfielder Jo Adell in center for half their games last year, but he’s below average defensively. The only good defensive option the Halos have is Teodosio, who has a career average of just .193, which raises the question of why they made this trade in the first place.
The one good thing that could come from all this is that it might stop the talk of DH Mike Trout getting playing time in center. Trout hit 26 home runs as a full-time DH last year, and keeping him in that role would seem prudent, to say the least.