The Pirates walked away from last offseason’s three-team swap with the piece that changed everything, and then some.
Brandon Lowe was the centerpiece. Pittsburgh also landed left-hander Mason Montgomery and outfielder Jake Mangum, while sending right-hander Mike Burrows to Houston.
The Astros shipped outfielder Jacob Melton and righty Anderson Brito to the Rays. On paper, it was the kind of deal that can disappear into the shuffle by summer.
In Pittsburgh, it became much bigger than that.
Lowe gave the Pirates the middle-of-the-order punch they’d been missing for years. He launched 35 home runs and finished with an .824 OPS, his best mark since his breakout 2021 season.
For a club that has spent most of the last several years buried near the bottom of the scoring charts, that mattered. Pittsburgh ranked sixth in runs this season, after finishing dead last in runs per game in 2025.
That was a huge jump for a lineup that had finished in the bottom 10 in scoring every year since 2018, with 2018 itself only good for 20th.
His value wasn’t limited to the batter’s box, either. Lowe turned in 13 Defensive Runs Saved, a surprising number for a player who hadn’t been positive by DRS since 2019 and had finished at -14 with the Rays in his final season there.
He also stayed healthy, setting career highs with 150 games and 656 plate appearances. That alone stood out after injuries had followed him for much of his Tampa Bay run.
He had only reached 450 plate appearances twice in eight seasons, even if platooning was part of the equation.
There’s a real chance Pittsburgh only gets one season of that version of Lowe. He’s headed for free agency and sits at No. 10 on our final Free Agent Power Rankings.
The Pirates’ budget could make a new deal difficult, but there’s no denying what he meant to the 2026 club. He was the engine behind an offense that kept Pittsburgh in the NL Wild Card race for most of the season, and the team finished above .500 for the first time since 2018.
If Lowe leaves, though, the trade still has another strong case for Pittsburgh’s side because of Montgomery. The lefty became one of the league’s most dominant relievers over the final three months of the season, allowing runs in just two of 37 appearances from July through the end of the year.
He didn’t record his first save until July 11, when the Pirates were still sorting through ninth-inning options. From there, he piled up 18 saves, tied for the most in the league over that stretch.
Montgomery entered the majors with some prospect shine as a starter in Tampa Bay’s system, then shifted to relief without ever quite finding traction in the Rays’ bullpen. He missed bats, but the walks kept him from locking down a role.
In Pittsburgh, he trimmed his walk rate to 9.4% while still producing a swinging-strike rate near 15%. He won’t be arbitration eligible until next offseason, and the Pirates control him through 2030.
After searching for a successor to David Bednar, they may have found their closer for the rest of the decade.
Mangum filled a different need. He’s a speed-first fourth-outfielder type with little power, and he didn’t reach the majors until age 29.
That doesn’t usually scream difference-maker, unless your center fielder is out for a while. When Oneil Cruz broke his hand in June and missed two months, Mangum stepped in and kept the position afloat.
He hit .329 in June, then put up an .815 OPS as a regular in July. He stayed in the lineup in August after Ryan O’Hearn went down with a quad injury. The final two months were quieter, but Mangum still finished with a useful .276/.331/.363 line and 23 stolen bases.
Burrows, meanwhile, gave Houston a rougher return than it had hoped for. Pittsburgh could afford to move him because it entered 2026 with several viable rotation options.
Burrows had just completed a solid first full season in the majors, posting a sub-4.00 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning across 23 appearances, 19 of them starts, in 2025. He looked like a reliable back-end starter, with the possibility of more under Astros coaching.
That never materialized. His first season in Houston went sideways, as he posted a 5.99 ERA over 94 2/3 innings.
He was moved to the bullpen, which caused some friction, and his year ended early because of an elbow injury. He’s still a year from arbitration, so the Astros have time to salvage the move.
For now, though, the Pirates are the ones who nailed the trade.
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