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Nathaniel Lowe

MLBTR Podcast: The Pohlads Aren’t Selling The Twins, Nathaniel Lowe, And Service Time Manipulation

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Are there some notable relievers who could be on waivers this month? Also, what happens to a player when he is on waivers? (44:55)
  • If I told you that the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker, would you believe me? (52:40)
  • What’s the craziest out-of-nowhere team to make the playoffs and could a team do it this year? (56:35)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Red Sox Designate Ali Sánchez For Assignment

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1:57pm: The Sox have now officially signed Lowe and designated Sanchez for assignment. They also placed outfielder Rob Refsnyder on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 15th, due to a left oblique strain and recalled infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton.

1:26pm: The Red Sox will designate catcher Ali Sánchez for assignment today, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. The team has yet to announce the move, but they’ll need roster space for their reported agreement with veteran first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.

Sánchez, 28, appeared in only one game with the Red Sox and was hitless in his lone plate appearance. He was 5-for-21 with a couple doubles as a member of the Blue Jays before landing in Boston via waivers after being designated for assignment. Sánchez has appeared in parts of four major league seasons and suited up for five teams but has just 132 plate appearances in 47 games overall. He’s a .185/.222/.235 hitter in that tiny sample of scattershot playing time.

Unsurprisingly, Sánchez’s work in the upper minors has been far better. He’s played in parts of six Triple-A seasons and carries a .269/.340/.399 slash in 1266 trips to the plate. He’s a better-than-average defender who excels at blocking balls in the dirt and boasts a superlative 39% caught-stealing rate in his 12-year professional career.

Sánchez is out of minor league options, so any team that claims him off waivers will have to plug him right onto the big league roster. Waivers are the Red Sox’ only possible course of action with Sánchez, now that the trade deadline has passed. He’ll be placed on outright or release waivers within the next five days (very likely the former). He’s been outrighted multiple times in his career, so if Sánchez clears waivers, he’d be able to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency

Red Sox Finalizing Deal With Nathaniel Lowe

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The Red Sox and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe are in the final stages of a contract, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.  MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reported earlier that Lowe and the Sox were in discussions and were “working on getting it done.”  Lowe is represented by SportsMeter.

The signing comes at little surprise, as reports linking the Sox to Lowe have been swirling since May, soon after Triston Casas was lost to what is likely to be a season-ending knee surgery.  Boston continued to show interest in Lowe prior to the trade deadline but no deal was reached with the Nationals.  After the Nats designated Lowe for assignment and placed him on waivers yesterday, Cotillo reported that the Sox were likely to make a play for the former Gold Glover, so it would appear that Lowe is now officially a free agent after clearing waivers.

Casas’ injury sparked quite a chain reaction in Boston’s season, as Rafael Devers’ subsequent refusal to play first base was one of the factors that led to Devers being traded to the Giants in June.  While the Sox looked around the market at Lowe and other trade options, the fill-in platoon of Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez performed respectably well, with Gonzalez in particular crushing left-handed pitching.  Since Lowe is a left-handed hitter, it stands to reason that Gonzalez will still get his share of at-bats when a southpaw is on the mound, and Toro could be the odd man out of the playing time equation.

The question now facing the Sox is what version of Lowe are they getting — the solid veteran who was a fixture as the Rangers’ first baseman from 2021-24, or the much-less productive Lowe who hit only .216/.292/.373 over 490 plate appearances with Washington.  These underwhelming numbers included a decent but uninspiring .235/.312/.421 slash line in 337 PA against right-handed pitching.

Even those splits represent an upgrade over Toro, plus there is more potential upside if the change of scenery returns Lowe to his past Rangers form.  The Red Sox are one of baseball’s better-hitting teams overall, though the club is more productive against left-handed pitching.  Boston’s collective 102 wRC+ against right-handers is tied for 15th among the 30 teams.

There is no financial risk for the Red Sox in adding Lowe since they’ll only be owing him the prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary.  That total will be subtracted from the roughly $2.33MM remaining on Lowe’s $10.3MM salary for the 2025 season, with the Nationals covering the remainder.  Lowe also has one final year of arbitration control remaining, but unless he goes on an absolute tear in Boston over the remainder of the season, the Sox are likely to non-tender him this winter rather than give him a raise on that $10.3MM figure.

It is safe to assume that the Red Sox probably just view Lowe as a stopgap for 2025, with Casas on the horizon for a return in 2026 and perhaps more of Boston’s up-and-coming prospects (i.e. Kristian Campbell, Jhostynxon Garcia) perhaps being viewed as first base candidates down the road.  Signing Lowe addresses one of the few weak links on a roster that shares the top AL wild card slot with the Mariners, and sits five games back of the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East.

Red Sox Expected To Show Interest In Nathaniel Lowe

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Nathaniel Lowe’s tenure with the Nationals has come to an end. Washington placed him on unconditional release waivers this afternoon, the anticipated outcome after they designated him for assignment on Thursday. Waivers are a 48-hour process; those will be resolved no later than Monday.

Another team could claim him and assume the remaining $2.33MM of his $10.3MM salary, but that’s difficult to envision. In the likelier event that he goes unclaimed, the Nationals would remain on the hook for virtually all that money. At that point, Lowe would be free to sign anywhere. A new team would pay him the prorated $760K league minimum for the final few weeks of the season.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive writes that the Red Sox are likely to show interest once the veteran first baseman officially reaches free agency.  (To be clear, Cotillo is not reporting that Boston has any plans to claim Lowe off waivers and take on the remaining salary.) Money won’t be a factor, as every team would be offering the league minimum — which comes off the Nats’ remaining obligations. Assuming multiple teams are willing to offer Lowe a major league contract, he’ll make his decision based on how many at-bats are available, the potential to contribute to a playoff run, and possibly geographical preferences.

The Sox have used an Abraham Toro/Romy Gonzalez split at first base since Triston Casas’ knee injury. They were expected to pursue first base help before the trade deadline but didn’t come away with any offensive additions. Gonzalez, a right-handed hitter, has more than held up his end. He’s mashing lefty pitching at a .357/.407/.673 clip with six homers in 108 plate appearances.

Gonzalez has a near-.900 OPS against southpaws in his career. He’s a .220/.239/.342 hitter versus right-handers. He’s only reaching base at a .270 clip against righties this season. Gonzalez has started four of the past six games (all of which have been against righties), but he shouldn’t be playing regularly unless he holds the platoon advantage. That leaves a decent amount of playing time for the switch-hitting Toro. An offseason minor league signee, Toro is hitting .238/.293/.387 in 198 plate appearances from the left side of the plate. He’d hit well in the immediate aftermath of the Casas injury but has slashed .194/.252/.287 over 32 games since July 1.

Lowe is a lefty bat with a better big league track record. His stint in Washington was a disappointment, as he hit .216/.292/.373 across 490 trips to the dish. That’s essentially a match for Toro’s season. Between 2021-24, Lowe posted an impressive .265/.352/.435 showing in more than 2000 plate appearances against righty pitching. It’s easy to see why the Sox would look to add him as a platoon partner with Gonzalez.

Toro is out of minor league options. The Sox are carrying three catchers on the active roster after claiming Ali Sánchez off waivers from Toronto this week. If the Red Sox were to sign Lowe, one of Toro or Sánchez would almost certainly be designated for assignment as a corresponding move. While Boston makes the most sense as an on-paper fit, teams like the Reds or Royals could also look for a first baseman or DH. A team that signs Lowe (or claims him off waivers) could theoretically retain him in 2026 via arbitration, but no club is likely to tender him the eight-figure contract that’d require.

Nationals Request Unconditional Release Waivers On Nathaniel Lowe

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TODAY: The Nationals announced that they have requested unconditional release waivers on Lowe.

AUGUST 14: The Nationals announced Thursday that they’ve designated first baseman Nathaniel Lowe for assignment. He’ll be the corresponding move to open an active roster spot for Dylan Crews, whose previously reported reinstatement from the 60-day injured list is now official.

It’s an unexpected end to what’ll go down as a lackluster tenure with the Nats for Lowe, whom Washington acquired from the Rangers over the winter. The Nats sent lefty Robert Garcia to Texas in hopes that Lowe, who came to D.C. with two years of club control remaining, could be a multi-year option providing middle-of-the-order punch to a young lineup. It hasn’t gone as hoped, to say the least.

Lowe, 30, was a steady source of production with the Rangers from 2021-24, hitting .274/.359/.432 (124 wRC+) with 78 home runs — including a career-high 27 round-trippers back in 2022. He hasn’t come anywhere near that level of production with the Nationals. In 490 plate appearances, he’s batted just .216/.292/.373 with a 26.5% strikeout rate that stands as the highest of his career in a full season. Lowe’s 9.6% walk rate is better than average but still the second-lowest of his career and a ways shy of the 11.3% clip he recorded during that four-year peak with the Rangers.

Lowe hit a grand slam yesterday, his first homer since July 19, but that was just his third hit in the month of August despite regular playing time. He hasn’t had a multi-hit game since July 18 and is batting only .167/.271/.294 in his past 36 games (144 plate appearances). The home run yesterday was a big hit but not enough for Lowe to save his job with the Nats.

The Nationals likely explored potential deals for Lowe prior to the trade deadline, but his ongoing slump and fairly hefty $10.3MM salary would’ve served as significant impediments to finding a deal. With the deadline now behind them, the Nats will have no recourse other than to place Lowe on outright waivers or release waivers. At this point, that’s little more than a paper distinction. Lowe crossed five years of major league service time less than a month into the season, meaning he can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and still retain the remainder of that guarantee as he heads to the open market.

All 29 other teams will have the opportunity to claim Lowe, but in light of his immense struggles, it’s hard to see another team claiming the remaining $2.49MM on his contract. If Lowe passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll become a free agent who can sign with any team. A new team would only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The Nationals will remain on the hook for the rest of his salary.

If Lowe can catch on elsewhere and return to form, he’d technically remain under club control with that new team through 2026. However, he’d be due a (small) raise on that $10.3MM salary, so he’d need to make quite the impression in the final few weeks of the season in order to convince a new club that he’s worthy of an $11MM+ expenditure. The Nationals were clearly going to non-tender him — they wouldn’t have made this move if not — and in all likelihood Lowe will be a free agent in search of rebound opportunities this winter.

The Nats have up to five days to place Lowe on waivers. If they wait the maximum amount of time, that guaranteed salary will drop slightly, to about $2.2MM, but it’s still unlikely that another club would claim that sum.

With Lowe out the door in D.C., the Nats can give increased first base reps to a resurgent Josh Bell, which would free up the DH spot to rotate several young players. Alternative options at first bae in the upper minors include Juan Yepez, Yohandy Morales and Trey Lipscomb, though of that trio only Lipscomb is on the 40-man roster — and both Yepez and Morales have struggled in Triple-A.

Nationals Receiving Interest In Multiple Hitters

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The Nationals are receiving calls on a number of hitters, according to a report from TalkNats. The Red Sox have been in contact with the club about first basemen Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe, while the report adds that Washington has also received calls from clubs inquiring after the availability of second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. and outfielder Alex Call. According to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, the Phillies have shown interest in Call’s services, though it’s unclear if that interest continues even after Philadelphia landed outfielder Harrison Bader in a deal with the Twins.

That Boston would inquire after the Nationals’ pair of first basemen is hardly a surprise. The Red Sox have had a hole at first base ever since Triston Casas went down with a season-ending injury at the beginning of May, and since then the club has relied primarily on Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro to handle the position. The duo has done reasonably well with that opportunity, and Gonzalez in particular has flourished in a part-time role with a 1.041 OPS against left-handed pitching. Improvements can be made, however, and bringing either Bell or Lowe into the fold would constitute a substantial upgrade.

Bell would presumably be the cheaper of the two to acquire. The 32-year-old is on a one-year deal that guarantees him $6MM total this season. While Bell was once a solidly above average bat at first base, with a .262/.351/.459 (116 wRC+) slash line over his first seven seasons in the majors and a handful of even more impactful seasons than that, in more recent years he’s settled in as just about an average hitter in the big leagues. Since the start of the 2023 season, Bell has hit .243/.322/.406 (102 wRC+). This year, his wRC+ sits at 101 with an 18.1% strikeout rate, an 11.1% walk rate, but just 13 homers in 96 games. Notably, Bell’s numbers feature substantial splits. He’s posted a 120 wRC+ against right-handed pitching this year, compared to a wRC+ of just 30 against lefties. That could make him the ideal platoon Partner for Gonzalez given his excellent numbers against southpaws.

Lowe, meanwhile, has had a down year in D.C. but comes with an additional season of team control as he’s eligible for arbitration this winter. After slashing a strong .274/.359/.432 (124 wRC+) and earning both Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards across four seasons in Houston, Lowe was traded to the Nationals this past offseason and has struggled to adjust to his new team. In 108 games for the club this year, he’s posted a lackluster .226/.294/.386 slash line with a wRC+ of 94. Like Bell, he also sports pronounced platoon splits; while he’s posted a decent 108 wRC+ against right-handed hitters, that mark drops to just 49 against fellow lefties. With Casas expected back in 2026, Lowe may not necessarily be as attractive an option for the Red Sox as Bell would be, though he could also become a trade chip for Boston in the offseason if he bounces back down the stretch if acquired.

Call, 30, was acquired from Cleveland back in 2022. He’s been a steady contributor in a part-time role for the Nationals since then with a .243/.342/.373 slash line (103 wRC+) in D.C. overall. That figure is dragged down by an abysmal 2022 season where he was used as a regular, however, and as a bench player this year Call has excelled with a .274/.371/.386 (121 wRC+) slash line in 237 trips to the plate. While Call lacks much power, he strikes out just 15.2% of the time while walking at an above-average 11.0% clip. He primarily profiles as a corner outfielder but has experience at all three outfield spots as well as DH. He could be a valuable addition for a team looking for a right-handed outfield bat, such as the Padres. Gelb suggests the Phillies have some interest in call, and he could be a fit even after their acquisition of Bader earlier today. After all, Johan Rojas has underwhelmed this year and both Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh are best suited to a platoon role where they can sit against lefties.

As for Garcia, the 25-year-old posted a 110 wRC+ last year as the club’s everyday second baseman but has taken a slight step backwards this year. In 370 plate appearances across 96 games, Garcia has posted a .261/.300/.405 (95 wRC+) slash line with a 14.9% strikeout rate but lackluster defense. Garcia would be an intriguing addition given that he’s under team control through the end of the 2027 season. Garcia hasn’t directly been tied to any clubs, but one speculative fit could be the Astros, who are known to be looking for another bat and preferably would like to add a left-handed hitter. The Giants and Royals are among the other teams for whom adding Garcia could make some sense.

Nats Notes: Nuñez, Chapparo, Williams

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The Nationals announced last night that infielder Nasim Nuñez was optioned to Triple-A Rochester after the game. A corresponding move wasn’t announced, but the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden reported not long after the Nuñez move that fellow infielder Andrés Chaparro is being called up for the first his first big league look of the 2025 season.

Nuñez has had a bizarre tenure with the Nats so far. Washington originally selected him out of the Marlins organization in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, scooping him up primarily due to his defensive prowess at shortstop. Nuñez stuck on the roster all season in 2024, appearing in only 51 games and taking only 78 plate appearances, during which he batted .246/.370/.262 with no home runs. A double was his lone extra-base hit on the season. It’s rare that a team can roster a player all season with such limited usage, but the Nats were firmly in rebuild mode last year and thus could make it work.

The 2025 season has played out similarly. Nuñez, now 24, has appeared in only 23 of the Nationals’ 53 games since his recall from Rochester in early April. He’s averaged less than one plate appearance per game in that time, taking 49 turns at the plate and hitting .186/.271/.233. Nuñez has one year and 58 days (1.058) of MLB service time dating back to Opening Day 2024 but still has only 127 major league plate appearances despite never landing on the injured list.

For a player who’d never played in Triple-A at the time of his selection in the Rule 5 Draft, that lack of reps feels particularly problematic — at least from a developmental standpoint. Nuñez hadn’t even hit well in two seasons of Double-A ball.

Virtually no scouting report on Nuñez has suggested he comes with substantial upside at the plate, but being limited to a total of 158 plate appearances between the majors and (briefly, earlier this season) his first taste of Triple-A work doesn’t give Nuñez much of a chance. He’s gone 15-for-18 in stolen base attempts (many as a pinch-runner) and indeed graded out as a plus defensive shortstop.

The Nationals have effectively been carrying Nuñez as a designated pinch-runner/late-inning defensive upgrade for more than a year. He was on the active roster for the entire month of May and received all of eight plate appearances. Seldom do players in today’s game find themselves used with this level of infrequency. The move back down to Triple-A should give Nuñez some much-needed reps in the batter’s box.

In his place, the Nats will summon the 26-year-old Chaparro, whom they acquired from the D-backs last summer in exchange for veteran reliever Dylan Floro. Chaparro opened the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain but has been hot since his activation in early May. The righty-swinging slugger has played in 20 games and totaled 82 plate appearances with Rochester this year, slashing .296/.390/.606 with six homers, four doubles, a 12.2% walk rate and a 24.4% strikeout rate.

Chaparro made a brief big league debut last year, getting into 33 MLB games and slashing .215/.280/.413 with four home runs. He played third base previously in both the D-backs and Yankees systems, but the Nats have used him exclusively at first base and designated hitter in both Triple-A and the big leagues.

There should be opportunity at both spots in the majors. Designated hitter Josh Bell has at least posted passable numbers as a left-handed hitter in 2025, but the veteran switch-hitter has posted a disastrous .051/.178/.103 batting line in 45 plate appearances when swinging from the right side of the dish. Nathaniel Lowe’s splits at first base aren’t quite that pronounced, but he’s still hit very poorly in lefty-versus-lefty situations.

It’s feasible that Chaparro could find himself with a bigger role sooner than later. Bell has been a disappointment after signing a one-year deal in free agency and will be a DFA candidate before long if he can’t improve his overall .179/.274/.342 line on the season. Lowe is a trade candidate, though the fact that his bat has tanked after a strong April showing doesn’t do his market any favors.

One other area where many Nats fans might hope to see some change would be in the rotation, where righty Trevor Williams has struggled, but it doesn’t sound as though there’s anything planned on that front just yet. Asked about the security of Williams’ spot in the rotation after another rough start yesterday, manager Davey Martinez told the Nats beat: “Yeah, he’s in our rotation” (link via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). Martinez cited Williams’ pitch count as a reason that he was hooked after 4 1/3 innings, but he’d also allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits.

The 33-year-old Williams, who signed a two-year deal worth a guaranteed $14MM over the winter, has averaged fewer than five innings per start in 2025. He’s only completed six innings twice in 13 starts this year. He’s currently sitting on an ugly 5.91 earned run average, and over his past eight starts, Williams has been torched for a 6.41 ERA with just a 16.3% strikeout rate.

Williams’ 5.91 ERA is nearly three times the 2.03 mark he posted last year in nearly the same sample of work (66 2/3 innings in 2024; 64 innings in 2025). He never seemed likely to sustain last year’s success, which was buoyed by an 80% strand rate, career-low 4.2% homer-to-fly-ball ratio, and a .267 average on balls in play (second-lowest mark of his career, behind 2018’s .261). The extent to which he’s regressed has been a surprise, however. The fluke pendulum has swung the other direction on Williams’ strand rate, going from abnormally high to abnormally low — just 60.4% in 2025. That’s more than 12 points below both the league average and Williams’ career mark.

It’s not all bad luck, though. Williams didn’t have much margin for error with an 88.9 mph average fastball last year, but he’s on even thinner ice now with a “heater” that’s sitting 87.6 mph on the year. An already poor 9.4% swinging-strike rate has fallen to 8.4%. Williams is giving up more contact, particularly within the strike zone, and opponents have seen notable upticks in their average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit rate against the veteran righty.

Unless Williams can turn things around, it’s hard to see how he can hang onto that rotation spot long-term. MacKenzie Gore is finally breaking out as one of the sport’s premier arms, and rotationmates Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and Michael Soroka have all been at least serviceable, albeit unspectacular.

Williams is aided by the fact that there’s very little depth that’s pushing for his spot. Lefty DJ Herz is already out for the season due to Tommy John surgery. Josiah Gray won’t be back from his own UCL repair until late in the season, at best. Shinnosuke Ogasawara is on the minor league injured list, as is top prospect Jarlin Susana. Other depth arms like Andry Lara and journeyman Adrian Sampson have struggled this year as well.

Former top prospect Cade Cavalli is a notable exception, as he’s in a tear in Triple-A during his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Cavalli has a 1.52 ERA and 30-to-6 K/BB ratio over his past 23 2/3 innings. The longer the now-26-year-old Cavalli continues to excel, the tougher it’ll be to maintain the status quo at the back of the staff.

Nathaniel Lowe Drawing Trade Interest

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Nationals first baseman Nathaniel Lowe is drawing some early trade interest. Sean McAdam of MassLive relayed on the Fenway Rundown podcast (link to full pod and to Lowe clip) that at least one club has contacted the Nats to gauge Lowe’s availability. McAdam adds that he wasn’t able to confirm which club put in the call, though he suggests it was very likely the Red Sox, on account of their obvious need at the position.

Lowe, 29, is a logical trade candidate. The Nats have been rebuilding for many years and are currently 22-27. They’re not totally buried in the standings but there are three strong clubs above them in the National League East. Lowe is slated for free agency after 2026 and is unlikely to be a big part of the next competitive window.

If he does end up traded this summer, it would be his second time being flipped in the span of less than a year. The Rangers sent him to the Nationals in December in exchange for left-hander Robert Garcia. Lowe’s four years in Texas had gone quite well. From 2021 to 2024, Lowe took 2,576 plate appearances as a Ranger. He hit 78 home runs, drew walks at a strong 11.3% clip and kept his strikeout rate at an average-ish 23.3% pace. He produced a combined line of .274/.359/.432 in that time, leading to a 123 wRC+. He helped the Rangers win their first championship in 2023.

He’s been out to a slower start this year. His 9.3% walk rate and 27.8% strikeout rate are both worse than during his time in Texas. His .223/.298/.397 line on the season leads to a 94 wRC+. It’s possible there’s some luck at play. His .275 batting average on balls in play is below this year’s .290 league average and also the .339 rate he carried during his time as a Ranger. His average exit velocity and hard hit rate are actually up relative to his career norms, according to Statcast.

Lowe is making a notable salary, though not an egregious one. It’s $10.3MM here in 2025 and can be retained via arbitration in 2026. Though his 2025 isn’t out to a roaring start, his contract status and past track record could make him a sought-after trade candidate this summer.

That’s unlikely to happen soon, however. As relayed by McAdam, most teams are reluctant to depart with a key player this early in the season as it would send a message to their fans that they are giving up. At this part of the calendar, teams are asking for essentially twice as much as they would for the same player at the deadline. Along those lines, the Nats are planning to keep Lowe around for now, both in the name of keeping their contending hopes alive for now while also having him serve as a veteran leader for a roster mostly composed of younger players.

Perhaps that will change as the deadline approaches but clubs looking for first base help will have to look elsewhere for the time being. The first base position has been a talking point in Boston for weeks now. Triston Casas suffered a ruptured left patellar tendon on May 2nd and required season-ending surgery. In the immediate aftermath of that development, it was reported that the Sox were exploring the trade market.

It’s possible that Lowe is one of the external options they considered but they haven’t been able to get anything done. Given McAdam’s framing of the current prices, that’s not especially surprising. That has left the Sox to try internal options for now.

Rafael Devers was approached about the possibility of taking up the spot but is apparently uninteresting in doing so. Romy González got a few starts at first after the Casas injury but he himself then landed on the 10-day injured list due to a left quad contusion. Abraham Toro and Nick Sogard have been getting the starts there over the past two weeks. Toro is hitting .192/.192/.346 this year while Sogard has a line of .222/.276/.259, so the Sox will naturally keep looking for better options.

The Sox have been getting Kristian Campbell prepared to play first but that’s a work in progress as he’s never played there before. If the Sox feel comfortable with him sliding over, it’s possible that prospect Marcelo Mayer could take over second base for Campbell. If that arrangement works out somewhat well, perhaps the Sox would be less interested in Lowe come July, though it’s also possible that other injuries lead to more positional shuffling in the months to come.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Nationals Win Arbitration Hearing Against Nathaniel Lowe

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The Nationals have won their arbitration hearing with Nathaniel Lowe, the TalkNats website reports.  Lowe will receive a $10.3MM salary for the 2025 season, rather than the $11.1MM salary he was hoping to land by going to a hearing.

First base was a major target area for D.C. this offseason, and the Nats addressed this need by acquiring Lowe from the Rangers for reliever Robert Garcia back in December.  Lowe hit .274/.359/.432 over 2576 plate appearances (123 wRC+) in his four seasons in Texas, with a resume that includes a Silver Slugger Award in 2022, and both a Gold Glove and a World Series ring in 2023.  Since the Rangers were looking to create room in their lineup and bolster their pen, the Garcia-for-Lowe trade helped both Texas and Washington check some boxes on their winter to-do lists.

Money was also a factor, as the Rangers were able to re-allocate Lowe’s projected salary towards other needs.  MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Lowe to earn $10.7MM, with that predicted salary falling right in between Lowe’s desired $11.1MM payday and the Rangers’ figure of $10.3MM.

An arbitration hearing is something of an awkward way for a player and a team to kick off a new partnership, yet even in defeat, Lowe’s $10.3MM salary is still a nice raise over the $7.5MM he earned in 2024.  He’ll have another year of arbitration eligibility before becoming eligible for free agency following the 2026 season.

Lowe’s hearing officially wraps up the 2024-25 arbitration class.  Of the 17 players who didn’t reach an agreement before the January 9 figure-filing deadline, nine went to hearings, with teams winning five of those nine cases.

Alex Bregman, Tigers Reportedly At “Standstill”

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Spring training is now just a few weeks away but many free agents are still unsigned, with Alex Bregman arguably being the most notable. The Tigers are one club that have been connected to him but Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports that talks are “at a standstill.”

At the start of the offseason, MLBTR ranked Bregman the #3 free agent of the winter, behind Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes. Soto and Burnes are both now signed, leaving Bregman as the top guy still out there. We predicted a seven-year, $182MM deal that ended up being sort of a midpoint for Bregman’s negotiations earlier in the offseason. The Astros reportedly offered Bregman $156MM over six years, though the third baseman was trying to get to $200MM.

Rather than meet in the middle, Houston walked away. They lined up a deal with the Cardinals for Nolan Arenado, though Arenado used his no-trade clause to quash that. Instead, they acquired Isaac Paredes from the Cubs and signed Christian Walker to take over at first base. Since then, Bregman has been connected to clubs like the Tigers, Blue Jays, Red Sox and others, but without much apparent momentum.

The Cubs reportedly sniffed around the possibility of a short-term deal for Bregman but agent Scott Boras said last week that Bregman wasn’t considering that path. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer also recently downplayed the possibility of the Cubs getting involved. “I think likely,” Hoyer said at Cubs Convention a few days ago, when asked if the Cubs’ third baseman is already in the organization. “Certainly, we’ll look to supplement. Infield is an area we’re focused on (for the bench), but I think the likelihood is yes.”

Matt Shaw is perhaps the best solution there but he has not yet made his major league debut. There’s no guarantee he will hit the ground running in 2025, so there’s an argument for adding someone established, but it seems the Cubs are trying to be more opportunistic than aggressive in Bregman’s market.

It makes for something of a staring contest with the 2025 season approaching. It was around this time last year that Boras started pivoting to short-term deals for Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Boras has apparently made that turn with client Pete Alonso, as Alonso’s camp reportedly pitched a three-year deal to the Mets recently.

But with Bregman still holding out hope for a longer deal, it seems to be leading to the general sluggishness of the third base market. The Tigers have had a fairly quiet offseason, with one-year deals for Alex Cobb and Gleyber Torres being their primary moves so far. They have Jace Jung and Matt Vierling as potential in-house options at the hot corner, so they have a bit of leverage to wait out Bregman.

With Vierling also capable of playing the outfield, Jung seems like the logical choice for third base right now. He struck out in 30.9% of his plate appearances last year but that was a small-sample debut of 94 plate appearances. He didn’t have those kind of strikeout rates in the minors and still managed to draw a lot of walks while making his major league debut. Like with Shaw, there’s no guarantee that he can take the job and run with it but the Tigers might feel they have enough cover to not go crazy on a Bregman deal.

As long as Bregman stays out there, it seems to be preventing other dominoes from falling. The Cardinals came into the winter looking to do something of a reset but they haven’t been able to execute it yet, which seems to be at least partially because Arenado wanted clarity on Bregman’s situation before he’d commit to being traded. That has left St. Louis in a sort of holding pattern where they might just keep Arenado and other veterans into the start of the 2025 season.

Daniel Kramer of MLB.com also reports that the Bregman situation is leaving the Mariners playing a waiting game. While the M’s are not in on Bregman, they are impacted by the situation nonetheless. Kramer writes that the M’s “believe they’re positioned to make a notable move before Spring Training” but are holding on to see if a Bregman deal sparks movement elsewhere, since upgrading at third is on their to-do list.

Seattle has been fairly quiet this winter, with their signing of infielder Donovan Solano to a one-year, $3.5MM deal being their most notable move. Kramer reports that the M’s don’t plan to deploy him at second and he will be in the mix for playing time at first base more than anywhere else. That perhaps suggests Solano will be platooning with Luke Raley, since Solano is better against lefties and Raley the opposite.

For third base, Kramer floats various possible scenarios that could come to pass as the offseason progresses. He mentions that the Red Sox could land Bregman, which could perhaps make someone like Triston Casas more available. Casas doesn’t play third but it could perhaps lead to Solano moving across the diamond for more time over there. Kramer also floats the possibility of the Tigers signing Bregman and making Jung available, or a similar situation with someone on the Blue Jays like Orelvis Martínez or Addison Barger. It’s also possible that infielders like Luis Arráez of the Padres or Willi Castro of the Twins become more available once Bregman is off the board.

Until then, the Mariners are left laying in the cut, though they have explored other options. They had talks with the Cubs about Nico Hoerner and Bellinger, though the Hoerner deal seemed to become less likely when Paredes was sent to Houston in the Kyle Tucker deal. Perhaps the Hoerner trade talks could be revisited if Bregman ends up a Cub, which is perhaps another reason for the M’s to wait. The Bellinger connection was reported earlier in the offseason.

Another path the M’s considered, according to Kramer, was getting Nathaniel Lowe from the Rangers. However, it seems Texas didn’t feel great about dealing Lowe within their division, which led to him being dealt to the Nationals instead.

For now, it all feels like the part of the standoff where everyone has their hand by their holster, waiting for movement. It’s possible that bodies start dropping once someone flinches, but it’s a staredown for the time being.

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