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Josh Lowe right fit for Rays in a draft that yielded Pete Alonso, Bo Bichette

The two Tampa Bay products have already been All-Stars, but Lowe’s five-tool talents remain quite appealing.
 
Josh Lowe needed a little time before he could become a presence in the majors, and he's now playing like the Rays always expected he could.
Josh Lowe needed a little time before he could become a presence in the majors, and he's now playing like the Rays always expected he could. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]
Published May 15, 2023|Updated May 15, 2023

NEW YORK — The question tends to pop up sometimes, fairly or not, whenever the Rays come face to face with what could have been.

Because the Tampa Bay area is such fertile ground for baseball talent, there are players spread across the majors who get labeled as ones that got away from the hometown team.

In some cases, that may well be true. In others, not so much. The player may have been drafted higher than the Rays projected, or his development track may have improved dramatically in pro ball, or there may have been financial factors in play.

Just in the 2016 draft, there are a couple of interesting All-Star-quality examples.

Because the Rays see the American League East rival Blue Jays frequently, and will again next week, you hear often about shortstop Bo Bichette, who played for St. Petersburg Lakewood High and still lives in the area; and through Sunday, he had tied for the league lead with 54 hits.

The Mets' Pete Alonso runs the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Reds in Cincinnati last week. [ AARON DOSTER | AP ]

And as the Rays this week face the Mets, a hot topic will be slugging first baseman Pete Alonso, the Tampa native and Plant High product who has already had MLB-leading 53 homer and 131 RBIs seasons. He is off to another strong start this year, with 13 and 31.

Both were second-round picks in 2016 — Alonso chosen 64th overall and Bichette 66th — meaning every other team also had at least one chance to draft them; some, like the Rays, had several.

Given revisionist history the Rays would obviously be better with them, and could find or create ways to get both into their lineup. But there’s another factor to this story.

The Rays are pretty happy with the player they took with their top pick, No. 13 overall, in that draft: Josh Lowe.

The one hitting .306 with nine homers, 28 RBIs and a .995 OPS, showing off his game-changing speed in the outfield and on the bases, the one forcing his way into the lineup on a more regular basis in the breakout season he and the team have been waiting for.

“He has the talent to do what he’s doing,” Rays general manager Peter Bendix said. “This is not a shocking outcome for him. But until you prove it, there’s always going to be those questions.”

It takes time

The Blue Jays' Bo Bichette reacts after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a game against the Phillies last week in Philadelphia. [ MATT SLOCUM | AP ]

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Coming out of Pope High in Marietta, Ga., as an infielder (though the Rays decided he was going to be an outfielder), Lowe, after signing for $2.6 million, needed some time to develop.

Alonso, who made himself into a prospect (with a $909,000 signing bonus) at the University of Florida after being undrafted out of Plant, opened the 2019 season with the Mets at age 24. Bichette, who signed with the Jays out of high school (for $1.1 million), reached the majors that July as a 21-year-old.

Lowe spent that year at Double A, the 2020 pandemic season at the alternate training site and all of 2021 at Triple-A Durham, where he earned organization player of the year and team MVP honors, save for a three-day, two-game September cameo in the majors (when Randy Arozarena went on the paternity list).

He was 24 when he somewhat unexpectedly got a spot on the Rays’ 2022 opening day roster after they traded Austin Meadows near the end of spring training.

When Lowe struggled through April, hitting .188 with one homer, he was sent down. He got another shot in late June and was warming to the assignment when the Rays decided they would rather acquire veteran David Peralta as a lefty-hitting outfield option, and they demoted Lowe to Durham again.

“When we sent him down the first time last year, I don’t think he was shocked. He was struggling, he was trying to keep his head above water,” Bendix said.

“When we sent him down the second time, he was pissed. And he should be. That’s great. We want that because that’s a sign of a player who says, ‘No, I can do this.’ We made the decision that we wanted the veteran presence at the time, but it wasn’t a bet against Josh. And the fact that he took that and said, ‘I’m going to prove you wrong,’ that’s exactly what you want in a player.”

It takes hard work

Josh Lowe exhales after celebrating with teammates upon scoring a run against the Red Sox last month. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

Lowe refined his swing during the offseason, adjusting for the increased velocity of major-league pitchers by shortening his path to the ball.

Hitting coach Chad Mottola credits Lowe for accepting that change was needed. For being open to new ideas, including trying different bats. And for putting in the time and effort to improve, working regularly near his Orlando area home with his brother Nathaniel, who plays for Texas, and a couple other friends, including Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who he eager to play against for the first time.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said how Lowe handled 2022 impressed him most. “That would be first and foremost, that he was able to withstand and somehow get through some early career struggles, keep a positive mindset,” Cash said.

Lowe said he understood it was part of the process.

“Obviously, nobody wants to struggle,” he said. “But at the same time, struggles are what can make a player great. You’ve got to learn from your failures to have success. I think learning from that kind of really helped me to get on the path that I’m on right now. I can figure out what didn’t work, so I can know what to do that will work for me.”

The Rays — who had worked out Bichette and didn’t show any real interest in Alonso, and passed on them a second time when they used the No. 53 pick on outfielder Ryan Boldt, who has yet to get past Triple-A — were pleased when they got to draft Lowe. Even more so now with the slow but steady progress, “more traditional” path and level-by-level adjustments that he made to become such a hit.

“When we look back at past drafts, we try more to look at not necessarily who did we miss on, but what was the process for our pick,” Bendix said. “And in this case, I feel really good about the process for our pick. There’s plenty of times I don’t. But this one, even at the time, it was pretty thorough, it was pretty eyes wide open.

“If it doesn’t work, why? It’s because he strikes out too much and he can’t really hit. If it does work, you have a five-tool player that you don’t usually get at pick 13. Those guys don’t last into that pick without a question. Otherwise, they’re the third pick in the draft.”

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