Hopefully the price will be right in the offseason.
It wouldn't be crazy to see the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees make a free-agent swap this offseason.
As the Yankees enter the offseason, there's reason to believe that Brandon Lowe, the Pirates free agent who is going to be available on the market this winter, could be an excellent option in New York.
The Yankees have continued to show over the past couple of years that they're willing to do a lot in free agency to improve on both sides of the baseball, and Lowe would do exactly that, depending on what happens with Jazz Chisholm Jr. As for Chisholm, he could be a fit in New York or Pittsburgh.
When it comes to Lowe, however, there seems to be a feeling that he isn't going to return to the Pirates.
That's very unfortunate for many reasons, though CBS recently suggested that Pittsburgh could be in play again, but so could the Yankees.
“One of only 16 players with a 100 OPS+ every season since 2018, Lowe is a middle infielder with 30-homer power, which makes it pretty easy to overlook his contact issues and potentially imminent decline phase. The team that signs Lowe will be the team that believes most in his defensive improvement this year. He's at +12 defensive runs saved this season. It was -14 just last year, and consistently negative before that.
“If he has to move off second base, Lowe's bat will play at first, but his swing-and-miss tendencies and defensive track record create some risk of collapse,” CBS wrote.
I'd absolutely hate for the Pirates to lose Lowe unless they had a backup plan like Chisholm.
I wouldn't say that one is better than the other because they do a lot of different things.
Ultimately, Chisholm's ability to defend at a high level and steal bases while also showing above-average pop needs to be discussed. However, I'm also a really big fan of Lowe's game and think that he's one of the more underrated players in baseball.
In a perfect world, the Pirates could have both guys on their roster and in the lineup, but we all know that's unrealistic.
