{"id":814068,"date":"2026-09-25T17:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/814068\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:24:18","slug":"calls-for-pirates-to-extend-brandon-lowe-increasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/814068\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls For Pirates to Extend Brandon Lowe Increasing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Lowe has been as good as the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> could\u2019ve asked for in his first season with the team.<\/p>\n

Over 148 games this season, the 32-year-old is slashing .262\/.332\/.493 with 34 home runs and 95 RBI. Lowe leads all MLB<\/a> second basemen in home runs, RBI, slugging percentage, and OPS (.825).<\/p>\n

Beyond his stellar offensive campaign, Lowe has gone from one of baseball\u2019s worst defenders in 2025 to one of its best a year later. His -14 Outs Above Average<\/a> with the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> last season was tied for the worst mark among qualified MLB<\/a> fielders.<\/p>\n

But fast-forward to 2026, and Lowe looks like those 2025 defensive struggles never happened. His Outs Above Average mark has flipped from -14 to +14<\/a>, which ranks in the 98th percentile in the majors and second among all second basemen. Only St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>\u2018 rookie JJ Wetherholt has a higher Outs Above Average at the position (+24<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Lowe will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. A major offseason priority for the Pirates should be doing everything they can to bring him back. Calls for a contract extension for Lowe have already been made.<\/p>\n

Ryan O\u2019Hearn, Konnor Griffin Among Players Who Want Brandon Lowe Back Next Year<\/p>\n

Fellow offseason acquisition Ryan O\u2019Hearn was very blunt when asked if he wanted Lowe back in Pittsburgh beyond 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you asking me if I would love to have a guy that hits 30-plus [homers] and probably 100 RBIs, that plays Gold Glove second base, and is a stud in the clubhouse?\u201d O\u2019Hearn said. \u201cYeah, I would love to have that guy back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Lowe has been as good as the Pittsburgh Pirates could\u2019ve asked for in his first season with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":["post-814068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117332847106277473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}