Proposed Rays Trade Would See All-Star Second Baseman Get Dealt
The Tampa Bay Rays are rebuilding and still have a couple of players that could return some prospects of value.
While the Rays held on to Brandon Lowe through the offseason, it isn't for sure that he will be with the team for the entire campaign.
Lowe's current contract runs through the end of this season with a team option for next year. The 30-year-old is the most expensive player on the Tampa Bay payroll and it feels unlikely that the team will want to keep paying that while losing games.
He is on a red-hot start to 2025, which could make it the prime time to deal him. This is the best he has played since the first few years of his Rays career, a more competitive team could pay up to add him to their roster.
A trade was proposed over at San Francisco Giants On SI, that would see the Rays send Lowe to the Giants in exchange for outfield prospect Dakota Jordan and former star prospect Marco Luciano.
That offer could at least open up conversations as Jordan has superstar potential. He was a fourth-round selection last year and is already the sixth-ranked prospect in all of the San Francisco system, per MLB's pipeline rankings.
The 21-year-old has an ultra-fast swing and isn't much slower as a runner. The problem is that he needs both to round into form.
At the plate, he strikes out far too much. He was fanned 84 times in 290 plate appearances during his final year in college. His rate has only grown as a professional. Getting rung up every fourth at-bat is not ideal.
On the good side, he was still able to produce a .354/.459/.671 slash line with 20 home runs and 14 doubles during that campaign.
As for his speed, he just needs to get more aggressive on the base paths. He is far too gifted physically to have only swiped seven bags in college.
He has stolen two bases through the first three games of this year, so perhaps it is a switch that was made this offseason.
Luciano would just be a bonus. He was the Giants' second-ranked prospect just last year, but he has hit a bump in his development with the team.
Like Jordan, he has a beautiful swing that will have his potential still high. He has struggled against righties and breaking balls, though.
A change of scenery could be what the 23-year-old needs to take that next step as a player.
Getting two promising prospects for Lowe would be a win. This would be a good enough offer to at least start conversations and open up the idea of Tampa Bay shipping away their veteran second baseman.
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Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a contributing writer across many Sports Illustrated 'On SI' sites. You can follow him on X or Instagram @dillysanders