Video: Red Sox Sign Nathaniel Lowe, Shuffle Depth Chart Ahead of September Roster Expansion

[Brandon Glick]

The Red Sox have a new first baseman, but can Nathaniel Lowe finally fill the hole opened up by Triston Casas' knee injury?

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[moonslav59]

So far, Lowe has given us a big boost. he's only just turned 30, so there is no reason to think he can't repeat some of his past very nice production years. (He has one more arb year left, too! Thanks Brez!)

[BaseballGuru]

Nathaniel is a Gold Glove 1b, Silver Slugger Winning World Champion 1st off, so going from Washington to Fenway is like traveling from your backyard pool to Bora Bora.  And he's played solid baseball for 5 years running, and this backyard pool slump appears to be all that has occured here.  Consider the poolyard blues over.  Onward to capturing another ring aye Nathaniel!?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Lowe is high.

In three Red Sox games he has three hits -- all for extra bases (he pinch-hit in another game and walked and scored). 

Lowe's hits are all clutch -- because he keeps repeating them: a two-run homer to send one game into extra innings, a game-winning double Thursday that beat the Yankees, and another double last night, after which he scored the winning run. He also hit a game-tying sacrifice fly in NY.

His Boston slugging percentage is .800, or .125 one-thousandths better than the Yankee DH who leads the majors...

[Bellhorn04]

8 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Lowe is high.

In three Red Sox games he has three hits -- all for extra bases (he pinch-hit in another game and walked and scored). 

Lowe's hits are all clutch -- because he keeps repeating them: a two-run homer to send one game into extra innings, a game-winning double Thursday that beat the Yankees, and another double last night, after which he scored the winning run. He also hit a game-tying sacrifice fly in NY.

His Boston slugging percentage is .800, or .125 one-thousandths better than the Yankee DH who leads the majors...

Heck of a start.  Also worth noting that in his last game with the Nats he had a grand slam and 2 walks.

Thank you Nats!

[notin]

54 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Lowe is high.

In three Red Sox games he has three hits -- all for extra bases (he pinch-hit in another game and walked and scored). 

Lowe's hits are all clutch -- because he keeps repeating them: a two-run homer to send one game into extra innings, a game-winning double Thursday that beat the Yankees, and another double last night, after which he scored the winning run. He also hit a game-tying sacrifice fly in NY.

His Boston slugging percentage is .800, or .125 one-thousandths better than the Yankee DH who leads the majors...

Small point, but I think .125 thousandths would be .000125 or 125 millionths…

[notin]

2 hours ago, BaseballGuru said:

Nathaniel is a Gold Glove 1b, Silver Slugger Winning World Champion 1st off, so going from Washington to Fenway is like traveling from your backyard pool to Bora Bora.  And he's played solid baseball for 5 years running, and this backyard pool slump appears to be all that has occured here.  Consider the poolyard blues over.  Onward to capturing another ring aye Nathaniel!?

If you look at their careers, I’d much rather the Sox have Lowe than Casas going forward.  But the estimated $9-10mill difference in salary will likely play a bigger part than I prefer…

[notin]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Heck of a start.  Also worth noting that in his last game with the Nats he had a grand slam and 2 walks.

Thank you Nats!

Last time we got our 1b from the Nats mid-season, we made it to the ALCS…

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, BaseballGuru said:

Nathaniel is a Gold Glove 1b, Silver Slugger Winning World Champion 1st off, so going from Washington to Fenway is like traveling from your backyard pool to Bora Bora.  And he's played solid baseball for 5 years running, and this backyard pool slump appears to be all that has occured here.  Consider the poolyard blues over.  Onward to capturing another ring aye Nathaniel!?

Nice post. He looks up to the challenge.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, notin said:

If you look at their careers, I’d much rather the Sox have Lowe than Casas going forward.  But the estimated $9-10mill difference in salary will likely play a bigger part than I prefer…

That $9-10M is the reason the Nats cut ties.

It seems like we have been forever trying to guess what level of spending JH will approve, each winter, and if we predict he will allow us to spend up to the first tax line, without going over, then that $9-10M is very significant and would downscale our options.

We have Bregman returning or not as a major financial choice.

We have to bring Chapman back or pay bigly for another one.

We need a solid SP'er, even if Giolito returns.

We need pen help and maybe 2B help, along with the Lowe choice at 1B.

One obvious decision could be made to solve one of the these problems: trade from our OF excess for a relatively lower cost solution, but do we have the nerve to make two major trades, like this, to fill two major roles? Will making two trades put too much strain on our depth, or force us to count on Jh Garcia, Campbell and or Mayer to win FT roles

We also have some recent extensions that will kick in. I agree with all of them, but nevertheless, we added 2026 cost that was not on the books, until recently:

$28.3M Crochet

$16.3M Anthony

$9.2M Bello

$7.5M Campbell

$6.3M Rafaela

The tax hit on Hicks is $10.3M and Duran has an $8M option or arb.

Gio's 140 IP option trigger or not could add a lot of salary or create another rotation hole.

Before the year started, and even more so, after the Devers salary dump trade, our budget outlook was pretty good. Now, it's kinda tight.

OPEN UP THE WALLET JH!!!! Spending to the 2nd line should be enough. Spending up to the first line might not be, unless we make two big trades that include some highly ranked prospects and young core players like Duran or Abreu plus maybe Campbell, Arias, Tolle or several prospects ranked 3-12, mostly pitchers.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 hours ago, notin said:

Small point, but I think .125 thousandths would be .000125 or 125 millionths…

Millionths it is. Judge is definitely one in a million -- video images of him in every Red Sox-Yankee game on FOX or ESPN.