The Orioles have a clear hole at second base, and Brandon Lowe looks like one of the cleanest ways to plug it.
That’s the case for a lot of reasons, starting with the bat. Lowe is a two-time All-Star, a left-handed hitter, and a player who has spent years doing damage in the AL East.
He also happens to be a former University of Maryland standout, which doesn’t hurt when you’re trying to connect with a local fan base. But the real appeal is simpler than that: he’s a proven major league second baseman who would give the Orioles a real upgrade at a spot that has been a mess.
Lowe, pronounced “Lau,” should already be familiar to Orioles fans. He starred at Maryland in 2014-15 on a College Park team that featured five future big leaguers, and he also spent one summer in the Cal Ripken Sr.
Collegiate Baseball League as a 19-year-old. From there, his path took him straight into the division spotlight.
The Rays picked him in the third round in 2015, and he spent the first eight seasons of his MLB career in Tampa Bay from 2018-25 before a trade last offseason sent him to Pittsburgh.
What followed was another big offensive year. In his first season with the Pirates, Lowe hit 35 homers and drove in 96 runs, both his best totals since 2021, and he finished with a career-high 5.3 bWAR.
That wasn’t just a power spike, either. He’s been a consistently productive hitter for most of his career, with a career 123 OPS+ and an average of 4.2 bWAR per season.
He has five seasons with at least 21 homers and three with 30 or more. In plain terms, he’s one of the best-hitting second basemen in the sport.
The Orioles have seen plenty of that production up close. Lowe has been a problem for them for years, posting an .857 OPS with 20 homers against Baltimore as a Ray.
He also hammered the Red Sox to the tune of a .994 OPS and 21 homers, and he put up a .918 OPS with 21 homers against the Blue Jays, with more than 70 games played against each club. The Yankees handled him better than the others, limiting him to a .659 OPS.
There’s also a defensive wrinkle that makes him even more interesting. Lowe had a huge turnaround with the glove in 2026, finishing with 13 Defensive Runs Saved and 15 Outs Above Average after the previous season’s ugly -14 DRS and -14 OAA.
Whether that’s a real breakout or a one-year spike is fair to question, especially at 32. But even if he settles in as only a league-average defender, that would still be a major step up for Baltimore.
That’s because the Orioles’ second base production was flat-out bad in 2026. Mostly Jackson Holliday, with some Jeremiah Jackson mixed in, the position produced just 0.1 WAR, which ranked worst in the American League and third-worst in baseball, according to FanGraphs.
Baltimore’s second basemen also posted the worst on-base percentage in the majors at .275 and the sixth-worst slugging percentage at .349. Lowe, by comparison, had a .331 OBP and a .493 OPS.
None of that means the Orioles should give up on Holliday. He’s only 22, still young enough that plenty of future stars hadn’t even reached the majors yet at that age.
He was the No. 1 overall draft pick, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, and he’s the son of a seven-time All-Star. The talent is still there.
But the Orioles can’t build next year’s hopes around waiting for him to become what they want him to be.
If they want to contend next season, they need established help now. Lowe gives them that.
He also gives them flexibility. If Baltimore signs him, the club can decide later what to do with Holliday - send him back to the minors, shift him to another position, or even trade him, as recent reports have suggested.
The contract should be manageable, too, since Lowe is on the wrong side of 30. ESPN projects four years and $80 million, while MLB Trade Rumors has him at three years and $69 million. Either way, that feels like a price the Orioles should be willing to consider.
There are risks, of course. Lowe has never been the picture of durability.
He played a career-high 150 games this season, but that was one of only three times he has gone beyond 109. Injuries have followed him around throughout his career, including problems with his knees, feet, back, elbow, neck, oblique, quadriceps, and more.
Baltimore would have to plan for missed time, though it does have some depth, with Blaze Alexander available as a utility option and Jordan Westburg potentially seeing time at second.
There’s also the qualifying offer attached to Lowe, which would cost the Orioles a draft pick if they signed him. That said, teams sometimes have to pay that price to land the right player. And Baltimore could potentially recover a compensatory pick if another club signs Trevor Rogers.
For an Orioles offense that disappointed in 2026, Lowe checks a lot of boxes. He hits.
He has the résumé. He knows the division.
And yes, he’s a Terp.
In Other News...
Orioles Got A Mixed Prospect Showing At The Perfect Time
The Arizona Fall League Fall Star Game offered a useful snapshot of where a few Orioles prospects stand right now, with four members of the organization taking part for Peoria. Pitchers Braxton Bragg and Patrick Reilly were both in the mix, along with outfielders Vance Honeycutt and Ike Irish, giving Baltimore a chance to see some of its better young talent on a stage built for evaluation. The Javelinas are tied for first in the AFL standings, so the setting has been as competitive as it gets for a developmental league showcase.
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For Baltimore, the appeal is obvious: turn an area of depth into a chance to address a separate need, especially on the pitching side. Elias has worked with Miami before, and that history only adds to the sense that this is a path worth watching as the trade market develops. Names like Sandy Alcantara or Eury Perez fit the kind of upside the Orioles might chase, even if nothing has moved beyond the speculative stage so far. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles May Soon Regret Moving A Bullpen Arm They Revived
Tyler Wells had become one of those useful bullpen fixes the Orioles could lean on in a pinch, the kind of arm that can stabilize a game when a staff is trying to sort itself out. After being shifted into relief, he turned in a strong July with a 1.10 ERA and even started looking like a possible closer candidate in Baltimore, a notable rise for a pitcher whose profile had always carried some volatility.
What made Wells so intriguing was the way he got results despite the risk baked into his style. He did not generate many ground balls, but he also kept the ball in the park at a respectable rate on fly balls, which helped the Orioles get real value out of him before moving him to the Rays during the 2026 season. For a bullpen that had just found a workable answer, that kind of departure can linger. [Read more 🡒]