PITTSBURGH -- A small-market team in a division dotted with big-market clubs. A pitching staff bursting with potential. A manager with a modest résumé as a player but an innate feel for the vibes within a clubhouse.
Yeah, Brandon Lowe has been here before.
The two-time All-Star second baseman was a fixture on Tampa Bay clubs that consistently punched above their weight in the AL East. He doesn't see why the same can't happen in Pittsburgh, which acquired Lowe, outfielder Jake Mangum and left-handed pitcher Mason Montgomery last week as part of a three-team trade that sent Pirates starting pitcher Mike Burrows to Houston and a pair of prospects to Tampa Bay.
While there's a chance Montgomery and Mangum can be contributors in 2026, the focal piece of the unusually aggressive move by the Pirates is the left-handed Lowe, who hit 31 home runs last season and now finds himself playing half his games at PNC Park, where the nearest edge of the 21-foot-high Roberto Clemente Wall sits just 320 feet from home plate with the banks of the Allegheny River about another 100 feet away.
"The dimensions of the ballpark play into where my power alleys lie," Lowe said. "Something about seeing a ball going flying into the river seems very, very exciting."
So is the idea that the Pirates are ready to contend for the first time in a decade.
"I feel like there's a real opportunity there for a deep push and some playoff baseball in Pittsburgh," Lowe said. "The pitching staff is legit. The hitters, they have some extremely talented guys that play in the field, and I'm excited to kind of come and help in any way that I can."
Lowe spent eight years with the Rays, who made the postseason every year from 2019 to 2023, including a run to the 2020 World Series. Tampa Bay won 96 games or more three times during that span despite playing in the same division as the far-deeper-pocketed New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
While Lowe allowed there is something to be said for having an advantage in financial resources, in his experience it's far from the sole determining factor for success.
"Payroll isn't everything," Lowe said. "The big names do get paid and obviously you know what you're getting [with] some of those guys, but those big names start somewhere."
Like, say, Tampa Bay, which has found a way to stay competitive despite having Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, among others, head elsewhere when they became too expensive.
Now it's Lowe's turn to make that transition. He has one year remaining on his current contract and is scheduled to make $11.5 million in 2026. When the Pirates have acquired players during general manager Ben Cherington's tenure, a significant chunk of them have controllable years left.
That's not the case with Lowe, yet the Pirates showed a bit of uncharacteristic urgency by taking somewhat of a small gamble that Lowe can help elevate an offense that ranked near the bottom of the majors in nearly every significant statistical category last season. That lack of production is the biggest reason why Pittsburgh finished at 71-91 despite having a pitching staff anchored by Cy Young winner Paul Skenes.
The window of opportunity to capitalize with Skenes still playing for a modest salary is already closing. Next season will be the seventh since Cherington was hired, and patience -- externally anyway -- is starting to run out.
Cherington said over the weekend "there's a lot more out there for us" in terms of adding to the lineup before the club reports to spring training in mid-February. Maybe, but Lowe's arrival gives Pittsburgh something it has lacked for most of the last decade: a proven veteran bat who can put the ball over the fence with regularity.
The Pirates have had just one player hit more than 30 homers in a season since 2014, and Josh Bell's 39 home runs in 2019 came during a tumultuous year in which the club cratered during the second half, leading to sweeping leadership changes.
That group that took over -- led by Cherington -- now finds itself deep into the "prove it" phase of its tenure. The rotation anchored by Skenes and Mitch Keller could be excellent. After leaning heavily on inexperienced young players or hitters deep into their 30s in an effort to stitch something together, Lowe's arrival signals a shift in mindset.
While he will start the season as the everyday second baseman, the Pirates may have to get creative to make sure manager Don Kelly writes down the names of the best nine hitters on the lineup card. That means Lowe might find time in the outfield or at designated hitter. He's fine with either if it comes to that.
"One thing I was taught in Tampa is if you can play anywhere, it keeps you in the lineup," he said. "That was the biggest thing [and] I want to be in the lineup for as many games as possible."