All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe has made it clear he would like to remain with the Rays for the remainder of his career, but his future with the team is seemingly in doubt.
For years, questions and rumors surrounding Brandon Lowe’s future with the Tampa Bay Rays have swirled.
In 2025, those questions and rumors ramped up. First came the question of the July trade deadline and whether Tampa Bay would retain its All-Star second baseman. The Rays chose to keep Lowe.
Then came the offseason, and the Rays had to choose if they would exercise Lowe’s $11.5 million option for the 2026 season. They exercised the option and extended Lowe’s tenure in the only club he has ever known in Major League Baseball, at least in the short term.
But Lowe’s place with the team is far from solidified, and a recent article by Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic further emphasizes that point while tying Lowe to other suitors.
“The Rays have spent years pondering the possibility of trading second baseman Brandon Lowe,” they wrote. “Now, with Lowe set to earn $11.5 million in the final year of his contract, the possibility might finally become real.”
“Lowe, 31, would seem an ideal fit for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are casting a wide net for left-handed hitters and might be more successful acquiring them in trade than free agency. The Athletics and San Francisco Giants are among the other clubs seeking to upgrade at second base.”
Through all the noise and speculation, Lowe has made it clear that he would like to remain in Tampa Bay for the remainder of his career.
“You’d love for there to be some sort of talks to keep myself here for the rest of my career,” Lowe said during the season. “That’s something that I can’t bring up, I don’t think they can truly bring up right now. But when we get to talking about it, that’d be great.”
“Those are the guys that you idolize growing up,” the 31-year-old added. “You watch (Derek) Jeter spend his whole career in New York, certain guys that spend their whole career in one place, and that’s essentially kind of a dream. Spend however long as you can in one organization, build kind of that legacy there, and leave something pretty cool and pretty interesting to look back on.”
Given the Rays’ spending limitations and propensity to trade away longtime roster pieces in favor of younger talent, Lowe’s goal to remain with the team for the rest of his playing days seems very ambitious, if not doubtful. But does Tampa Bay have a plan to replace him?
“For the Rays, a trade of Lowe would create an opening at second without an obvious internal solution,” Rosenthal and Woo added. “A double-play combination of Carson Williams and Taylor Walls might be too offensively challenged, if Williams even starts the season in the majors. Jonathan Aranda barely has played second in the majors. Chandler Simpson hasn’t played the infield regularly since he was at Georgia Tech in 2022.”
“A trade for a second baseman might be necessary, but even then, the Rays would be hard-pressed to replace Lowe, who when healthy has been one of their best hitters.”