Bamm-Bamm at Five Hundred

Nashville

After a rough Low-A season where he hit with no power, Brandon Lowe swallowed his pride, moved to Nashville, and committed to swing changes his agents recommended — better lower-half sequencing and core awareness. He credits that work for making him a big leaguer. The next year he reached Double-A, and by August 2018 he was up with Tampa Bay.

The path was never clean. Born in Suffolk, Virginia, to Tom and Caron Lowe — his father played baseball at SUNY Cortland — Brandon grew up a Yankees fan. He tore his left ACL fielding a grounder two days before his freshman season at the University of Maryland, spent months overcoming the mental block of the injury, and used the redshirt year to get stronger. He came back as an All-ACC hitter and a freshman All-American. He broke his fibula two days before the Rays drafted him in the third round, 87th overall, in 2015. He still lives in Nashville in the offseason with his wife Madison — a former Maryland softball player he met in college — and their son Emmett, born in January 2023.

Five Hundred

On June 27, 2026, in his first season with Pittsburgh, Lowe drove in his 500th career run. He has 525 now, built across 862 games and nine seasons — eight in Tampa Bay and one in Pittsburgh. A left-handed batter at 5-foot-9 and 181 pounds, he has 183 home runs, 151 doubles, and an .805 OPS — the power that earned him the nickname Bamm-Bamm. He made the All-Star team in 2019 and again in 2025, and through 117 games this season he has 26 home runs.

The Clubhouse

Pirates infield coach Chris Truby has described Lowe as a silent leader whose actions rub off on younger players. Former Rays teammates, including Shane McClanahan, called him a good dude and a great player and said his absence felt weird in the clubhouse. Lowe is 32, in his first year with the Pirates, still at second base. Rookie Konnor Griffin said Lowe has taken him in and is fun to learn from.

Reporting: The Virginian-Pilot, MLB.com, Wikipedia, University of Maryland Athletics, Baseball-Reference. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.