Free-agent infielder Jed Lowrie has signed a three-year contract with the Houston Astros after spending the last two seasons with the Oakland Athletics.
The Astros’ official Twitter account passed along the official report:
Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports noted more contract details:
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports provided the yearly breakdown of the deal:
Drellich also passed along what position Lowrie will be playing moving forward:
Lowrie sounded optimistic about the direction his new team is headed, via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com:
Lowrie has enjoyed solid production over the last two years after spending 2012 with the Astros. The 30-year-old hit just .249/.321/.355 last season but had 15 home runs and a career-high 75 RBI the previous year, which speaks to his upside.
Richard Justice of MLB.com shared his thoughts on the move while also providing a comment from general manager Jeff Luhnow:
Last season, Lowrie took issue with his former and now current club. Former Astros pitcher Paul Clemens was ejected in April after plunking Lowrie in the seventh inning of a game.
Following that game, the infielder called the incident “flat-out embarrassing.” The hit by pitch reportedly resulted from his decision to bunt in the seventh inning of a previous game.
However, the two main culprits from those antics, including former manager Bo Porter, are no longer with the team, as McTaggart notes:
In Houston, Lowrie may serve as a stopgap with Carlos Correa potentially taking over in the future. Correa suffered a season-ending injury last year but is still the Astros’ top prospect, according to Baseball America.
Lowrie has familiarity with the Astros and joins a team that has already made several moves this offseason. Houston may be in the difficult AL West but is slowly adding talent to emerge as contenders in the division.
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