Brandon Lowe: A Smashing Success
By: Joey Johnston / Inside Pitch
He’s Brandon Lowe. As all well-educated Rays fans quickly learned, that rhymes with…wow!
While making a name for himself — and becoming a prime contender for the American League Rookie of the Year Award — Lowe had a pronounced influence on this season’s most successful moments. During spring training, Lowe received long-term security with a six-year, $24-million contract, then he justified the franchise’s faith by earning a spot on the AL All-Star Team and becoming involved with Tampa Bay community causes.
Wow, indeed.
Lowe also sounds like…pow!
As in his consistent home run stroke that first seemed surprising for an unassuming, seemingly mild-mannered player charitably listed at 5'10", 185 pounds. But it became a realistic expectation.
Admit it.
You have a question.
How?
Is it the applesauce? Before a game in the minors, Lowe grabbed a GoGo squeeze pack usually favored by a toddler. He had three hits, including a homer. The next day, it was back to the applesauce. Two more homers. Lowe, not given to superstitions, now consumes pregame applesauce like Wade Boggs used to eat chicken.
“That would be a pretty light-hearted story, wouldn’t it?” Lowe says with a chuckle. “It has become one of those things for me. I try not to miss it. But it requires a little bit more than applesauce.”
It takes the sweat of his brow, the experience that breeds know-how and an unconventional batting cage drill regimen that doubles as a belief system.
Sort of a baseball Tao.
All of which has produced a warp-speed story that begs for a full explanation.
Nearly 18 months ago, Lowe was entering his third full professional season. Truthfully, he wasn’t certain what the Rays thought of him. He was headed for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits. All very predictable stuff.
But 2018 became a blur.
From Montgomery to Triple-A Durham to his August call up with the Rays, he produced 28 homers and 101 RBI in 143 games (compared to 16 homers and 101 RBI in 221 games during his first two minor league seasons).
And then, after entering this spring with no guarantee of making the Opening Day roster, Lowe kept plowing along. Lowe played like he belonged.
He became only the fourth Rays player with a multi-homer game at Boston’s Fenway Park. He launched another homer to the 500 level at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Rays Manager Kevin Cash, who had been jokingly referring to Lowe as “Elf on the Shelf,” grew serious.
“Man, he can hit a ball a long way and really hard,” Cash says. “His wrists…he just whips the ball. He may not look the part, but he generates tremendous power.”
As for the prognosticators who saw this power surge coming in 2015, when the Rays selected Lowe from the University of Maryland with a third-round pick, well, they don’t exist.
“To turn into this kind of force, someone who can impact the ball like he does, that wasn’t something any of us foresaw, whether it was in the draft or the early part of his time in our minor-league system,” Rays senior vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom says. “He has improved so much on both sides of the ball.”
So the question lingers.
How?
Lowe said he knows the turning point of his baseball career, the moment that helped propel him to a standout rookie season. It’s when he selected the Nashville-based Bledsoe Agency for his representation. Hunter Bledsoe, the agency’s founder, was a former All-American and SEC Player of the Year at Vanderbilt University.
“No question, he’s one of the key people who helped me become a big leaguer,” Lowe says.
Bledsoe said the 2015 version of Lowe was a contact hitter who needed a better plan to drive the ball.
“I was extremely stagnant in high school and college,” Lowe says. “I just flicked at the baseball. Hunter laid out a plan where we could elevate things to a higher level.”
It began with three principles:
1. Be on time with your swing.
2. Store up energy and cultivate it in the body.
3. Control that energy to the contact point.
Did Lowe enter a batting cage or a baseball laboratory? Casual observers might say the latter.
“Some people have said Brandon is silly for doing what he does,” Bledsoe says. “I’m sure it initially looks odd. But it’s similar philosophically to a lot of things successful people do.
“It’s little things to create awareness and feel for what you’re doing. You do it consistently over time until it becomes habit. Your body and mind work together. You do things others don’t have the discipline or desire to do.”
As part of his regular drill package, Lowe uses a series of bands and bungee cords to promote posture, balance and the transfer of energy through his body.
He’ll employ a specially-designed bat. He’ll do posture stomps. He might have a band pull him backwards, so he can understand how to counter that force, becoming balanced.
Sometimes, he’ll strap on a Core Velocity Belt, which was patented by Bledsoe and colleague Lantz Wheeler. It’s designed to place different forces, planes, angles and stresses on the hips — another effort to create instant awareness and feel.
“Instead of a more conventional way, which is working on something, then guessing (whether it’s effective),” Bledsoe says. “Ultimately, you’re creating good posture and positioning. And that means you’re going to impact the baseball.”
Rays hitting coach Chad Mottola is fascinated with Lowe’s approach, which includes high-powered torque from his hips and obliques, then an explosion through the ball.
“The ground force (from Lowe’s back leg) creates energy,” Mottola says. “He creates a coil that delivers the barrel to the baseball. He has taught me some things. He helps me stay current. His teammates see what he’s doing and they want to know more, too.”
Initially, though?
“When I’m doing cage work, people will say, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’” Lowe says. “I’ll have bands attached all over the place. I have my little box of toys, the contraptions that help me get my feel.
“Basically, it’s a big kinetic chain when you’re hitting. The force that you put into the ground gets put back into your body. When you’re explosive to the ground on your load, the energy chains up into the barrel.”
Pulling back the curtains, that’s how Lowe’s power numbers have emerged.
“He has made the subtle adjustments and put in all the work,” Bledsoe says. “How did this happen? It’s a valid question because he doesn’t look like he should do what he does.
“When you meet Brandon, he’s not Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge. But at times, he looks like them. Or at least his numbers do.”
Wander around the Rays clubhouse and you’ll get five-star reviews for Lowe’s performance.
Outfielder Austin Meadows: “He probably has the quickest hands I’ve ever seen. His load and his hands go so quick through the zone. He hits it out to all fields. Nobody even talks about the amazing plays he makes in the infield, so there’s that, too.”
“His swing is so pure,” said former Rays pitcher and fellow Maryland alum Adam Kolarek. “He’s such a catalyst. He puts runs on the board single-handedly with his homers, but he can set the table for the other guys.”
Mottola: “This guy is not physically a bulldog, but everything he does is like, ‘I’m going to do this and I’m going to do it better than everybody else.’ His personality is nothing like it is between the lines. He has a Superman approach. Once he puts on his cape — or uniform — he just takes off. It’s fun to watch.”
It’s just so different than what’s expected by most first-time viewers.
For Lowe, it has always been that way. He’s from Newport News, Va. — an area teeming with elite athletes. Lowe never made that short list.
“Coming out of high school, you would’ve never guessed I played a sport,” Lowe says. “I was extremely undersized. I’m grateful Maryland took a chance on me.
“They told me I had potential, but I needed to work my tail off. That helped me develop into the player I am now.”
Maryland set the foundation for Lowe’s life. It’s where he met his wife, the former Madison Martin, during study hall. She was a softball player, finishing as the Terrapins’ Most Valuable Player and memorably leading an upset victory of top-ranked Florida (3-for-4, pitching victory).
“We were such good friends for the longest time before we ever started dating,” Madison says. “I guess you could say we built a good foundation.”
“One of her roommates told me, ‘Quit being stupid and ask her out!’” Lowe says. “I took the advice. And it has been great ever since.”
Lowe was a first-year redshirt and played two seasons for Maryland, leading back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Super Regionals. He was anticipating a shot at professional baseball. But two days before the amateur draft, he broke his left leg while playing for the Terrapins.
“Draft day was a whirlwind,” Lowe says. “I was on crutches. I just got a call (from Bledsoe, his draft adviser) and he said, ‘Hey man, we don’t think it is going to happen. Start looking for a roommate. Come back to college.’ I thought, ‘Get ’em next year when I’m healthy.’
“So I’m at a restaurant with my roommate and his family. His mom starts freaking out. ‘Brandon, you just got drafted.’ I’m like, ‘That’s a joke. Stop messing with me. That’s not funny.’ But it was true.”
Bloom said Rays scouts did plenty of work on Lowe, knowing that the player could hit. But pleasant surprises were still ahead.
With his new training regimen kicking in, Lowe made a good impression at nearly every level, including a Florida State League MVP award in 2017, when he batted .311 at Charlotte.
After batting .304 with 14 homers and 35 RBI (in 46 games) for Triple-A Durham last season, he got his major league call up.
And he promptly went a nightmarish 0-for-19 with the Rays.
Lowe finally settled down and had enough productivity — in September, then in spring training — to make the Opening Day roster. It has been heady stuff ever since. How do you top making the All-Star Team in your first season?
“Insane experience,” Lowe says. “It didn’t hit me until I got in the locker room. My locker was next to (Francisco) Lindor and (Aroldis) Chapman. There’s (Mike) Trout across the room. I’m talking to (Justin) Verlander, Gerrit Cole, J.D. Martinez, all these guys who have done All-Star caliber stuff for five-to-10 years.
“It was pretty incredible. I won’t forget any of it.”
Including game night.
Because of a shin injury, Lowe wasn’t able to play in the All-Star Game at Cleveland. But he participated in all the events, accompanied by Madison. In prime time, he stood along the baseline — with Meadows and pitcher Charlie Morton, completing Tampa Bay’s All-Star triumvirate — to await the nationally-televised introductions.
Veteran Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck: “From the Tampa Bay Rays…Brandon Lowe.”
Only Buck used the conventional pronunciation…”low.”
Low point.
Lowe smiled at a moment when anyone would’ve wondered why proper homework wasn’t done.
“I’m sure he has been dealing with that since roll calls back at school,” Bloom says.
“I felt disrespected for him, but he’s so even-keeled about everything, even that,” Mottola says. “He definitely has a fire in his belly, though. Don’t make him mad. He’ll take it out on the baseball.”
“Part of me was like, ‘You’d think they’d get it right just once,’” Madison says. “I was just happy to see him out there. They got the first name right.”
Lowe just shrugged.
“When you see me on camera, I kind of laugh,” Lowe says. “It’s to the point where I don’t get upset about it. Everybody looks at my name and says, ‘I don’t need to check the pronunciation. I’ve got it.’ I had to do a lot of correcting over my lifetime.”
One thing is certain. If you interact with Brandon Lowe, if you experience his sincerity, you definitely remember the name. To support mental health, he and his wife recently launched “Home Runs for Hope,” donating $100 to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay for each Lowe home run. They also participated in Rays on the Runway, which supports the Children’s Dream Fund.
“I have a platform,” Lowe said. “I want to use it for the good. I’m in a good place.”
What’s not to like?
He feels at ease, whether it’s the contractual commitment shown by the Rays, the nightly contributions he makes to a vibrant ball club, the meaningful life he is building with Madison or the loyal presence of their puppy, Collie, a mix of a Bernese mountain dog and poodle.
He’s an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. But with his kind of production, surely a nickname or catchphrase can’t be too far away.
Brandon Lowe: The Big Applesauce?
Why force a gimmick? What Lowe has accomplished speaks for itself.
“Brandon Lowe is not going away,” Meadows said. “They’re going to have plenty of chances to pronounce his name right. He’s going to a lot of All-Star games. That’s a promise.”
Better yet, let’s call it a vow.
You know, as in Lowe.
