For all the bad publicity in the fallout from the Rafael Devers trade, the Boston Red Sox are in good position for a playoff spot.
Entering Friday night’s game at San Francisco, the Red Sox were 39-37 overall and tied with the Seattle Mariners for the third and final wild card spot in the American League race. While Boston has not received very good grades from the blockbuster deal that sent the 28-year-old slugger to the Giants, the team is likely to be buyers at the trade deadline.
First base has long been a source of angst for the Red Sox this season. Initial hopes were that Triston Casas had grown into an everyday player, but he was lost for the season on May 3 after rupturing his left patellar tendon running to first base.
The team has rolled the dice with a mix of Romy Gonzalez, Abraham Toro and Nick Sogard, with better-than-terrible results, but not quite the production a team hopes to get from first base. Of course, Devers could have potentially been the answer, but everyone knows how that story turned out.
Perhaps the answer can be found in the NL East.
Boston Could Address First Base Issues by Acquiring Nathaniel Lowe
Former GM Jim Bowden wrote a column for The Athletic on Friday suggesting “One difference-making trade for each AL team in the wild-card race.” For the Red Sox, Bowden proposes they address the issues at first base by acquiring Nathaniel Lowe from the Washington Nationals for High-A pitcher Payton Tolle.
“He’d be an upgrade for the Sox, who would control him through 2026,” Bowden wrote. “Lowe would be a solid placeholder until prospect James Tibbs III, acquired in the Devers trade, is ready for the majors.”
Washington traded hard-throwing reliver Robert Garcia in December to get Lowe, and it started off great. On April 22, Lowe was slashing .293/.370/.500 with four home runs and 19 RBIs.
However, the wheels have fallen off for Lowe since then. He hit .211 in May, and in June, he’s been batting .217.
Nathaniel Lowe Would Represent ‘An Upgrade’ at First Base for the Red Sox
Nationals analyst Sam Sallick of the SB Nation-affiliated Federal Baseball site believes that Lowe is guilty of swinging for the fences.
“Lowe’s K% and whiff percentage are both up about five percent this season. His 27.5 K% is the highest it has been since 2020. Lowe’s BB% has also fallen from 12.6% last year to just 8.6%,” Sallick wrote. “These are all signs of a hitter trying to sell out for power.”
But Lowe is a career .267 hitter, who totaled 299 RBIs over his previous four seasons with Texas, and he has been one of the league’s best defensive first baseman. Bowman suggests that Boston could get Lowe in exchange for Tolle, its No. 15 prospect, who was drafted in the second round of the 2024 draft.
The 6-foot-6, 250-pound right-hander has a 3.92 ERA in 10 appearances for High-A Greenville, including nine starts, with 70 strikeouts in 43.2 innings. With a four-seam fastball that has generated a 50-percent whiff rate, more than double the High-A average of 23.5 percent, Tolle has posted a 38 percent strikeout rate that is the second-best in the minors among pitchers with at least 40 innings.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Red Sox Trade Pitch Targets ‘Upgrade’ at First Base appeared first on Heavy Sports.