Rays to place former All-Star on injured list

The Rays will place second baseman Brandon Lowe on the 10-day injured list, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The veteran infielder was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his right oblique after undergoing an MRI on Wednesday.

Lowe missed a couple of games last week after experiencing some discomfort in his left side. The current issue is seemingly unrelated, as he suffered the oblique strain on his right side while taking warm-up swings yesterday. Lowe last played on April 7, so the Rays will be able to backdate the IL stint to Monday.

That’s probably immaterial, as oblique strains typically lead to multi-week absences. A Grade 1 strain is the lowest severity, but any oblique issue is going to affect a hitter’s ability to rotate through his swing. While this is the first time that Lowe has been sidelined by an oblique injury, he has spent a fair bit of time on the IL in recent years.

Back inflammation and a season-ending knee fracture shelved him in 2023. A stress reaction in his back had led to an extended absence in the previous season. He has also had IL stints for a triceps contusion and a bone bruise in his lower leg within the past five years. Lowe has only reached 450 MLB plate appearances in a season once, connecting on 39 homers over 149 games back in 2021.

Around the injuries, the Maryland product has been one of the game’s top offensive second basemen. Lowe has turned in above-average rate production in every year of his career by the measure of wRC+. He hit 21 homers with a .231/.328/.443 slash line over 436 trips to the dish last season. Lowe was out to a slow start this year, collecting just five hits in his first 27 at-bats.

Lowe will join Taylor Walls, Jonathan Aranda, Josh Lowe and Jonny DeLuca as position players on the injured list. Curtis Mead has gotten the nod at the keystone in each of the last three games. He’ll probably assume the bulk of the playing time in Lowe’s absence. Amed Rosario has plenty of middle infield experience and is on hand as an option off the bench, although the Rays have deployed him mostly in right field in the early going.