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Rays send down Nate Lowe to make room for Jesus Aguilar

Reliever Nick Anderson also added to active roster with Jose De Leon sent back to Durham after cameo appearance.
 
Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Nate Lowe (35) celebrates at home base after scoring a homer at the bottom of the seventh inning against New York Yankees on Saturday, July 06, 2019 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. (ALLIE GOULDING   |   Times)
Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Nate Lowe (35) celebrates at home base after scoring a homer at the bottom of the seventh inning against New York Yankees on Saturday, July 06, 2019 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. (ALLIE GOULDING | Times)
Published Aug. 1, 2019|Updated Aug. 1, 2019

BOSTON — The Rays made room for first baseman/designated hitter Jesus Aguilar on the roster by sending rookie Nate Lowe back to Triple-A.

They also added reliever Nick Anderson, acquired Wednesday from the Marlins, to the active roster and sent down Jose De Leon, who made a cameo appearance, joining the team in the seventh inning after a flight delay on the way to Boston.

Aguilar was acquired Wednesday from Milwaukee to add some right-handed power to the Rays lineup and plays primarily first base, and can also DH. The Rays had two other players in similar roles as lefty hitters in Ji-Man Choi and Lowe.

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While there was some talk in the aftermath of Wednesday’s trade of keeping all three and finding enough at-bats, the Rays instead decided to choose between the lefties and sent down Lowe.

The rookie has been somewhat inconsistent at the plate, winning AL Player of the Week after the All-Star break, then going on an 0-for-13 skid he snapped Friday in Toronto, then rapping multiple hits in three straight games before an 0-for-4 Wednesday, while also making a costly error and another misplay.

Overall, Lowe is hitting .294 with five homers, 13 RBIs and an .875 OPS. Choi, who is out of options and thus would need to be passed through waivers to be sent to the minors, is hitting .264 with 10 homers, 37 RBI and a .773 OPS.

The Rays also acquired pitcher Trevor Richards from the Marlins and said Thursday he is headed to Triple-A Durham so he can get stretched back out to starter/bulk inning duty after being used in short relief recently with Miami.

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Another option for the Rays would have been to send down outfielder Guillermo Heredia, a righty hitter who is back to reserve duty with the return of Kevin Kiermaier from the IL. But with outfielder Tommy Pham sidelined the last two days due to a sore hand they may have wanted to keep Heredia as protection.