Old friend Brock Burke is heading to Cincinnati
The Tampa Bay Rays, Anaheim Angels and Cincinnati Reds have made an interesting three-team trade that has former Rangers pitcher Brock Burke going from Anaheim to Cincinnati, Chris Clark going from Anaheim to Tampa, Gavin Lux going from Cincinnati to Tampa, and Josh Lowe going from Tampa to Anaheim.
From Anaheim’s perspective, this is a move that fits in with what they’ve been doing all offseason — acquiring players coming off a bad year(s) but who have been successful in the past, in the hope of recapturing that past glory. Lowe, a lefthanded hitting right fielder who turns 28 next month, and who is the younger brother of former Ranger first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, had a big 2023 season for the Rays, slashing .292/.335/.500 in 501 plate appearances, going 32 for 35 on the basepaths, and putting up a 3.7 bWAR.
Lowe has not come close to that the past two seasons, however. In 2024-25, he has put up a .230/.292/.378 slash line in 822 plate appearances with a 0.8 bWAR, albeit while continuing to be very good on the basepaths (43 of 48 on stolen base attempts). He has especially struggled against lefthanded pitchers, putting up a 459 OPS in 2025 and a 547 OPS in 2024.
So Lowe would seem to be, at this point, a marginal platoon outfielder. He is, however, in just his first year of arbitration eligibility, and is under team control through 2028. If the Angels can get him hitting again like they did in 2023, they have a pretty good player for a decent period of time.
The cost to the Angels is fairly slight. Burke, a 29 year old lefty, was originally acquired by the Rangers from Tampa in a different three-team trade seven years. After having his career de-railed due to shoulder issues, Burke ended up being a surprisingly good member of the Rangers’ bullpen in 2022. He regressed in 2023, though, and ended up being waived early in 2024 after putting up a 9.22 ERA in 13 innings. He was claimed on waivers by the Angels and has been a useful 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 are not gaining or losing anything from a team control perspective in this swap. Lux was once a consensus top 10 prospect in MLB while coming up in teh Los Angeles Dodgers’ system, and his presence was part of the reason the Dodgers were willing to let Corey Seager depart. Lux missed all of 2023 due to injury, though. Upon his return in 2024, he slashed .251/.320/.383 while splitting time between second base and shortstop.
The Reds acquired Lux for outfielder Mike Sirota and a competitive balance pick last offseason in a deal that worked out great for L.A., as Sirota is now their #3 prospect (per BA) after posting an OPS in excess of 1000 while splitting the 2025 season between low-A and high-A, and they used the draft pick of Arkansas outfielder Charles Davalan, their #6 prospect, per BA.
Lux put up a good OBP but hit for little power in 2025, slashing .269/.350/.374 with 5 homers in 503 plate appearances while splitting time between DH, left field, and second base. The Reds apparently saw enough, and cashed him in for Brock.
This doesn’t look like a real exciting return for the Rays. Lux gives them a multi-positional guy who gets on base, and we know that they like that, but they only get him for a year. Clark was a 2023 5th round pick out of Harvard who hasn’t made BA’s top 30 list for the Angels either of the past two seasons.
Category: General Sports
