After years of speculation, the Tampa Bay Rays have finally parted with 2B Brandon Lowe, sending him to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three team deal that returns the Rays a top flight defensive outfielder and a premium pitching prospects.
In a mildly surprising turn of events, the cost was more than just Lowe; here’s how the trade shook out:
Pirates receive: 2B Brandon Lowe, LHP Mason Montgomery, OF Jake Mangum
Astros receive: RHP Mike Burrows
Rays receive: OF Jacob Melton, RHP Anderson Brito
Alongside
Lowe the Rays are dealing hard throwing reliever Montgomery — who dramatically underwhelmed in 2025 — and a centerfielder who rose to the occasion in 2025 but is evidently displaced by the return of the man he replaced.
We will have plenty of analysis to follow, but in the meantime here is the official Rays press release, which has a distinct focus on the players acquired over the departure of three key pieces of the 2025 roster:
The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired outfielder Jacob Melton and right-handed pitcher Anderson Brito from the Houston Astros in a three-team trade. The Rays traded infielder Brandon Lowe, outfielder Jake Mangum and left-handed pitcher Mason Montgomery to the Pittsburgh Pirates while the Pirates sent right-handed pitcher Mike Burrows to the Astros. The Rays 40-man roster currently has 38 players.
Melton, 25, is coming off an injury-shortened 2025 season in which he split time with the Astros and Triple-A Sugar Land, playing a combined 67 games. The left-handed outfielder made his major league debut on June 1 against the Rays at Daikin Park. He hit .157 (11-for-70) with one triple, 7 RBI, six walks and seven stolen bases in 32 games across four stints with the Astros. He made 22 starts, including 14 in center field, seven in left field and one in right field. In 35 games with Sugar Land, the Medford, Ore. native slashed .286/.389/.556 (36-for-126) with 16 doubles, six home runs, 17 RBI, 22 walks and 12 stolen bases. Following the season, Melton was named the Astros No. 1 prospect and tabbed as the farm system’s Best Defensive Outfielder as well as having the Best Strike-Zone Discipline by Baseball America. He was also named Houston’s No. 2 prospect by MLB.com. A second-round selection (No. 64 overall) by the Astros in the 2022 First-Year Player Draft out of Oregon State University, the six-foot-three, 208-pound Melton is a career .255 (257-for-1,009) hitter with 59 doubles, three triples, 48 home runs, 139 RBI, 116 walks and 93 stolen bases across 262 minor league games spanning four seasons.
Brito, 21, went 0-1 with a 3.28 ERA (49.1IP, 18ER) and .202 (36-for-178) opponent batting average in 12 starts with Class-A Asheville this past season. He allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his 12 starts and went 4.0 innings or more in six of them. Across two minor league seasons, the Estado Sucre, Venezuela native has gone 4-3 with a 2.36 ERA (103.0IP, 27ER), 147 strikeouts and a 1.10 WHIP while holding opponents to a .177 (64-for-362) batting average over 27 appearances (21 starts). Rated as the Astros No. 3 prospect by Baseball America and No. 7 by MLB.com, Brito was signed by Houston as an international free agent on Nov. 1, 2023.
In 745 games spanning eight seasons with the Rays, Lowe batted .247/.326/.481 (657-for-2,657) with 126 doubles, 12 triples, 157 home runs, 446 RBI, 282 walks and 33 stolen bases. The two-time All-Star concluded his tenure in Tampa Bay ranked among the franchise’s all-time leaders in home runs (3rd, 157), extra-base hits (6th, 295), runs scored (6th, 415), RBI (7th, 446), total bases (7th, 1,278), hits (8th, 657), doubles (8th, 126) walks (8th, 282) and games played (8th, 745). His seven years, 57 days of service time with the Rays are fifth most in club history behind Evan Longoria (9.170), Kevin Kiermaier (8.131), Carl Crawford (8.072) and Ben Zobrist (7.134).
Mangum, 29, made his major league debut in 2025, batting .296 (120-for-405) with 18 doubles, one triple, three home runs, 40 RBI, a .330 on-base percentage, a .368 slugging percentage, 27 stolen bases and an MLB-leading 36 infield hits in 118 games. The Mississippi State University product was the Rays MLBPAA Heart and Hustle Award recipient and was named the club’s Co-Outstanding Rookie by the Tampa Bay chapter of the BBWAA along with outfielder Chandler Simpson. He was acquired from the Miami Marlins on Dec. 8, 2023 as the player to be named later to complete a Nov. 17, 2023 trade in which the Rays also received infielder Erick Lara and right-handed pitcher Andrew Lindsey in exchange for infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján and right-handed pitcher Calvin Faucher.
Montgomery, 25, made a career-high 57 relief appearances across two stints with the Rays this past season. He went 1-3 with a 5.67 ERA (46.0IP, 29ER) and 63 strikeouts with Tampa Bay and 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA (9.0IP, 2ER) with 15 strikeouts in nine appearances with Triple-A Durham. In 66 games across two major league seasons, Montgomery has pitched to a 5.01 ERA (55.2IP, 29ER) with 80 strikeouts. The left-hander was originally selected by the Rays in the sixth round (191st overall) of the 2021 First-Year Player Draft out of Texas Tech.
