April 12: The Rays have now made it official. They announced that Lowe has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to April 9, with a right oblique strain. Infielder/outfielder Niko Goodrum has been recalled as the corresponding move.
April 10: The Rays will place second baseman Brandon Lowe on the 10-day injured list, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The veteran infielder was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his right oblique after undergoing an MRI this morning.
Lowe missed a couple games last week after experiencing some discomfort in his left side. The current issue is seemingly unrelated, as he suffered the oblique strain on his right side while taking warm-up swings yesterday. Lowe last played on April 7, so the Rays will be able to backdate the IL stint to Monday.
That’s probably immaterial, as oblique strains typically lead to multi-week absences. A Grade 1 strain is the lowest severity, but any oblique issue is going to affect a hitter’s ability to rotate through his swing. While this is the first time that Lowe has been sidelined by an oblique injury, he has spent a fair bit of time on the IL in recent years.
Back inflammation and a season-ending knee fracture shelved him in 2023. A stress reaction in his back had led to an extended absence in the previous season. He has also had IL stints for a triceps contusion and a bone bruise in his lower leg within the past five years. Lowe has only reached 450 MLB plate appearances in a season once, connecting on 39 homers over 149 games back in 2021.
Around the injuries, the Maryland product has been one of the game’s top offensive second basemen. Lowe has turned in above-average rate production in every year of his career by measure of wRC+. He hit 21 homers with a .231/.328/.443 slash line over 436 trips to the dish last season. Lowe was out to a slow start this year, collecting just five hits in his first 27 at-bats.
Lowe will join Taylor Walls, Jonathan Aranda, Josh Lowe and Jonny DeLuca as position players on the injured list. Curtis Mead has gotten the nod at the keystone in each of the last three games. He’ll probably assume the bulk of the playing time in Lowe’s absence. Amed Rosario has plenty of middle infield experience and is on hand as an option off the bench, although the Rays have deployed him mostly in right field in the early going.
No, not Lowe!
Rays will hit a new Lowe.
Lowes knows you got hos.
So clever, except Lowe rhymes with ‘wow’ not ‘low’
I genuinely don’t understand how some of these guys manage to get injured so often, and then you have plenty of other guys that are playing 140-150+ games a year.
Even 20 years ago, players weren’t this fragile.
“I genuinely don’t understand”…I’m with you Ryan I don’t understand it either. The number of guys in their 20’s(not necessarily B.Lowe)that can’t play 20 str8 games without injury is alarming. It’s gotten so bad, it’s almost like players are going on a “soft” strike, due to recent unfavorable outcomes in free agency contracts.
Probably a combination of advances in sports medicine, changes in philosophy over managing player health, and players earning so much that teams want to protect their investment. You mention 20 years ago Mark Prior is a perfect example from back then of why teams changed their philosophy on managing player health.
Injury-prone players get injured.
Brandon Lowe gets hurt every month.
Have to think that his downward health trend is starting to put the value of his options at risk, particularly to a franchise like the Rays.
He’s owed $10.5MM next year, or a $1MM buyout. He won’t be on the Rays after this season.
Got to be due to the pitch clock. Need more time for players to be 100% set to hit.
It seems as though Lowe & Story are just destined to have half a career. It’s a shame both are very good.
I know they all make big $ but your window to produce is so short.
Most guys would rather play than be sidelined.
As far as conditioning, maybe there’s too much conditioning these days.
Of course I’m only referring to hitters, pitchers that’s a whole different set of circumstances!
Tampa just gives up too many runs to be taken seriously this year. They had a nice run but that’s over.
Over? yeah right.
@JimmyTommyJohn
Given that they’re currently 7-6 with a negative run differential, while the D-Backs are 6-7 with a positive run differential, I think TB will be fine. Based on fWAR, they should have 6 wins, so they’re slightly overperforming but not by much. Are they favorites to win it all this year? No. Are they going to the playoffs? Probably not. But I think they’ll hover around .500. Just depends what they do at the trade deadline. If they blow it up, could be quite interesting but most likely a massive tank after that to end the season.
Might be interesting at trade deadline especially if Rays and Astros are selling.
Tiger players aren’t getting hurt… but are they really considered athletes?
What’s going on in Tampa? That’s a lot of injured hitters, usually they have tons of pitcher injuries instead. I guess that’s an upgrade and if anyone has the minor leagues and depth to handle injuries, it’s TB.
I’m excited to watch Mead though