Slow heartbeat, fast bat: This Draft prospect brings outdoorsman mentality and skills to baseball

PHOENIX -- Bass fishing, bow hunting, skiing, fly fishing.

If it happens outdoors, chances are Bo Lowrance is interested.

That love of being in nature started during childhood in the greater Salt Lake City area. Born in Tennessee before moving to New York when he was a few months old, his family relocated to Utah. Then during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, he moved to South Carolina, where he has since blossomed into MLB’s No. 21 Draft prospect.

“Baseball has been everything for me,” Lowrance said at the MLB Draft Combine in late June. “Just in terms of when you move, the first people you meet are on your new baseball team. A lot of my closest friends are the people that I played with.

“Baseball’s been a pretty huge part of my life.”

When he lived in Utah, he frequented Smith’s Ballpark, then the home to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. Lowrance recalled a two-week stretch in the spring of 2012 in particular when a 20-year-old prospect blazed across the outfield grass and ripped hits all over the yard -- it was none other than Mike Trout.

When MLB Pipeline released its initial 2026 Top 100 Draft Prospects list, Lowrance’s name wasn’t on it. He wasn't there during the first update either. It wasn’t until the list expanded to 150 in late April that buzz in the scouting industry was beginning to percolate around the 6-foot-5 shortstop from Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C. His ascension has only continued.

“I think I’ve always been a good player that just flew under the radar,” Lowrance said. “I didn’t really go to that many showcases or anything like that. I just stuck to playing and tried to improve myself. I definitely put on a lot of weight, a lot of size in the past year. My power numbers and such just comes with being stronger.

“I can’t say I would have expected to be in this position a year ago, but I’m not surprised by it.”

Lowrance understands that he’ll need to continue adding to his frame in order to further develop an already above-average power tool. He’s looked to a pair of left-handed-hitting big league first basemen as a means of honing that approach: Freddie Freeman, for how he attacks an at-bat and the intent behind his work; Matt Olson, for his swing path and how he similarly grew into his power after turning pro out of high school.

Sit down and talk with Lowrance and his demeanor will radiate the best traits of Freeman and Olson as well. When on the field, he leans on his finely honed outdoorsman skills.

“It helps your patience,” said Lowrance. “Your heart gets going [when you’re hunting], you gotta know how to chill out. Stepping up into the box, that’s a good skill to be good at.”

There’s a whole host of ways for a young prospect to train for the physical rigors of baseball. Over the past year, Lowrance has put his head down and gotten to work -- almost literally. Taking his sleep seriously is a big part of what’s allowed him to add good weight to his still-growing frame, turning him into a player who received first-round attention as opposed to one who organizations could wait to see develop in college.

Selecting players at 18 years old in the Draft is vastly different than picking even those just a few years older. Lowrance, as an exceptional athlete, played a lot of shortstop growing up, but 6-foot-5 guys at the premium spot are an especially rare breed. Scouts see his future at the hot corner, where his above-average arm strength would be a seamless fit. He can already hammer the ball with an all-fields approach, and the term “25-homer potential” doesn’t get tossed around about just anyone, but it is a projection for him.

“Eventually, I think I’ll still be a shortstop, or at least over there on the left side of the infield,” Lowrance said. “I’ll hopefully stay athletic, I’ll hopefully put on good weight -- I mean, I’m still pretty thin right now and I’m growing, but I’m not where I want to be physically yet. But it’s going to be important for me to retain my athleticism and maintain my speed so that I can be able to help a team on defense as much as offense. Hopefully I’ll wind up being a lot bigger and hitting the ball a lot harder.

“Not a day goes by that I’m not doing something to get better.”