Rays trade Brandon Lowe to Pirates, send Shane Baz to Orioles

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Dec 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — The Rays had a busy Friday that seemed to shift their focus to the future, trading two-time All-Star slugger Brandon Lowe and two other major leaguers to the Pirates in a three-team deal, and sending starting pitcher Shane Baz to the division rival Orioles for a haul of four prospects and a draft pick.

The trade of Baz, who went 10-12 with a 4.87 ERA last season, was completed first, with the Rays acquiring four players ranked among the Orioles top prospects by mlb.com: outfielder Slater de Brun (No. 6), catcher Caden Bodine (10), right-hander Michael Forret (11) and outfielder Austin Overn (30).

The Rays also got the Orioles competitive-balance round pick in the upcoming draft, which is No. 33 overall.

A couple hours later, the Rays formally completed the three-team trade with the Pirates and Astros.

That deal got the Rays two of Houston’s top prospects — outfielder Jacob Melton (No. 2) and right-hander Anderson Brito (7).

The price was heavy, as the Rays gave up Lowe, the two-time All-Star second baseman coming off a 31-homer season, plus outfielder Jake Mangum, who had an impressive 2025 rookie debut, and hard-throwing lefty reliever Mason Montgomery.

The Astros got pitcher Mike Burrows from the Pirates.

The Rays also added a pitcher with major league experience, claiming Osvaldo Bido off waivers from the Braves. Bido, 30, has pitched for the Pirates and Athletics. He was 2-5 with a 5.87 ERA last year for the A’s.

Of the prospects the Rays acquired, Melton appears to be the most advanced, reaching the majors last June and playing 32 games for Houston. The left-handed swinger was a 2022 second-round pick from Oregon State after winning Pac-12 player of the year honors.

Bodine and de Brun were high picks in last year’s draft, Bodine taken No. 30 overall from Coastal Carolina University and de Brun 37th out of Summit High in Bend, Oregon.

Forret is a starter from State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (14th round, 2023) with a big arm. He went 2-2 with a 1.58 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 74 innings last season at Class A and Double A.

Overn also split the 2025 season between Class A and Double-A, hitting .249 with 13 home runs and 64 stolen bases.

Brito has pitched only at the low level of the minors but has 147 strikeouts in 103 innings.

In trading Lowe, the Rays got a return for one of the game’s top power-hitting second basemen before he reaches free agency at the end of the season.

The deal came less than two months after the Rays picked up Lowe’s $11.5 million option for 2026, part of the final piece extension he signed in March 2019 (after just 43 big-league games) that ended up covering eight seasons and will pay him $45 million in all.

At the time, and again at the recent winter meetings, Rays baseball operations president Erik Neander said good things about how much Lowe had meant to the franchise.

Lowe, both after the 2024 season and this past one, said how much he enjoyed being with the Rays and hoped his option would be picked up.

Lowe, 31, was a 2015 draft pick who debuted with the Rays in August 2018. He evolved into a key part of their lineup and, as their longest-tenured active player, somewhat of a team leader over the past few seasons.

He is only the sixth player to spend the first eight seasons of his major-league career with the Rays, joining Carl Crawford, Kevin Kiermaier, Evan Longoria, BJ Upton and Ben Zobrist.

Lowe is coming off a strong 2025 performance in which he hit 31 home runs in 134 games, his second highest totals in both categories, having hit 39 in 149 games in 2021. He was named to the American League All-Star team for the second time and cobbled a 20-game hitting streak during June and July, matching Yandy Diaz’s franchise record.

Lowe’s 31 homers matched the Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. for the most by a second baseman in the majors last season. Lowe became the fourth active second baseman to surpass the 30-homer mark twice, joining Ozzie Albies (Braves), Jose Altuve (Astros) and Ketel Marte (Diamondbacks).

He is the third player to hit 30 multiple times for the Rays, joining Longoria (four) and Carlos Pena (three). With 157 homers overall, Lowe ranks behind only Longoria (261) and Pena (163) on the Rays all-time list.