The Tampa Bay Rays, Anaheim Angels and Cincinnati Reds made an interesting three-team trade in which former Rangers pitcher Brock Burke moved from Anaheim to Cincinnati, Chris Clark moved from Anaheim to Tampa, Gavin Lux moved from Cincinnati to Tampa, and Josh Lowe moved from Tampa to Anaheim.
From Anaheim’s point of view, this is a move that is consistent with what they’ve been doing all offseason – acquiring players coming off a bad year but who have had success in the past, hoping to recapture that past glory. Lowe, a right-handed lefty who turns 28 next month, and is the younger brother of former Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, had a big 2023 season for the Rays, hitting .292/.335/.500 in 501 plate appearances, going 32 of 35 on bWA3 walks, and laying down basepaths which is 7.
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However, Lowe hasn’t come close to that in the past two seasons. In 2024-25, he put up a slash line of .230 / .292 / .378 in 822 plate appearances with 0.8 bWAR, although he continued to drop significantly on the basepaths (43 of 48 in stolen base attempts). He struggled most against left-handed pitchers, putting up a 459 OPS in 2025 and a 547 OPS in 2024.
So Lowe will be seen, for now, as an outside platoon player. However, he is in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and is under team control until 2028. If the Angels can get him to hit again like they did in 2023, they have a very good player for a decent season.
The cost of Angels is quite small. Burke, 29 years old, was acquired by the Tampa Rangers in a separate three-team trade for seven years. After his career was cut short due to shoulder issues, Burke ended up being a surprisingly good member of the Rangers’ bullpen in 2022. He regressed in 2023, however, and was finally retired in early 2024 after posting a 9.22 ERA in 13 innings. He was claimed by the Angels on waivers and has been a middle reliever for them since then, with a 3.40 ERA in 82 innings over 90 appearances.
Burke is a free agent after 2026, as is Lux, so the Reds have nothing to gain or lose from a management team perspective in this exchange. Lux was once the 10th consensus prospect in the MLB when he arrived in the Los Angeles Dodgers system, and his presence was part of the reason the Dodgers were willing to let Corey Seager go. Lux missed all of 2023 due to injury, however. When he returned in 2024, he slashed .251/.320/.383 while splitting time between second base and shortstop.
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The Reds acquired Lux outfielder Mike Sirota and a competitive balance pick last season in a deal that worked out well in LA, as Sirota is now their #3 prospect (per BA) after posting an OPS of over 1000 while splitting the 2025 season between Low-A and high-A, and they used the draft pick of Arkansas prospect #6 Dansas out of the field.
Lux put up a good OBP but hit with little power in 2025, hitting .269/.350/.374 with 5 homers in 503 plate appearances while splitting time between DH, left field, and second base. Apparently the Reds saw enough, and they cashed out Brock.
This doesn’t look like a real exciting return for the Rays. Lux gives them a multi-position guy who gets on base, and we know they like that, but they only got him for a year. Clark was a 2023 5th round pick out of Harvard who didn’t make BA’s top 30 list for the Angels the past two seasons.
