Lowe brings power, veteran know-how to first camp with upstart Bucs

BRADENTON, Fla. -- He’s a well-established big leaguer and a two-time All-Star, but Brandon Lowe is also a new resident to this place they call Pirate City.

“It’s almost like,” he said here Tuesday, “you’re in your first year again.”

The 31-year-old Lowe jokes about going from the bright and cheery colors of the Tampa Bay Rays -- the colors he wore for eight big league seasons while bashing the fourth-most home runs as a second baseman (121) of anyone in MLB -- to the much more “intimidating” Pittsburgh-powered black and gold. He’s learning the way the Pirates post their daily schedules, how they run their drills, which one is Field 2, all that fun stuff.

But as the settling-in subsides and Lowe goes about his ordinary business of preparing for his walk year, this is a player with a lot to impart upon a Buccos team looking to make the turn in 2026.

You can juxtapose Lowe against his possible double-play partner -- MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect, Konnor Griffin -- and see that stars come in all sizes. Griffin is equipped with jaw-dropping physicality -- 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, and clearing the 410-foot center-field wall and hammering the roof of Pirate City’s indoor cages with deep fly after deep fly in BP.

Lowe is ... not that. He’s 5-foot-10, 190. He bears no grudges toward the Tampa team that traded him, because he knows that, back in the third round of the 2015 Draft, they took a chance on an undersized kid from the University of Maryland and gave him an opportunity to prove himself.

That he did just that means he’s learned a few things along the way. And he can pass some of those things along to Griffin in the coming weeks and months.

“Kind of just some mentality things,” Lowe said. “You know, there’s a lot of things he has that you can’t teach. You can’t teach the power, the explosiveness, the size. But he’s also got a good head on his shoulders, so he’s going to be open to learning, and I can maybe give him a kind word or two, you know?”

Even among some of his more veteran teammates, Lowe has been offering some advice in these early workouts about the value of not forcing things, of letting your swing develop in camp and tracking pitches before getting too hack-happy in the early live BPs.

As for Lowe himself, well, he’s already shown some of that raw power that one wouldn’t expect from his smaller frame -- the kind of power the Buccos lineup desperately needed to add this winter.

“He may be undersized, but the ball jumps,” manager Don Kelly said. “He was going to the left of dead-center over here on Field 1 [on Tuesday] and it’s really, really impressive. His attention to detail, the way that he thinks, and listening to him talk on his ground-ball work has been really fascinating.”

Pace is something even the established vets can lose sight of when the excitement of the start of spring sets in, but Lowe seems to have a good appreciation for the value of pace and patience, even with so much at stake both for this Pirates team and him personally this season.

Next winter, Lowe will be free-agent eligible for the first time. And helping to turn this Pirates team into a legit contender would certainly aid his cause.

“I’m a true believer in taking things and doing things in a way that's best for the team, and then stuff's going to pan out and shape up,” he said. “As long as you’re not selfish and just looking out for yourself, things have a tendency to round out and be pretty good in your favor.”

Lowe has battled injuries often in his career, but he’s generally been a reliable run-producer when healthy. His .780 OPS over the last three seasons would, if replicated in the season ahead, give the Pirates a sizable leap from the .651 mark they got from second base in that same span.

But in Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna, the Pirates have also added more adults in the room, guys who can show their younger counterparts how to win.

“The pieces are there, the mainstays have been developed, and now they’ve added some support pieces,” Lowe said. “It’s exciting. The vibe around the clubhouse and the way people are talking about the season, it’s looking to be a real fun time.”