The Pirates have extended second baseman Brandon Lowe the $23.15 million qualifying offer to remain with the club in 2027. The club has not made an official announcement regarding the offer.
It’s just the third time since the inception of the qualifying offer in 2012 that Pittsburgh has chosen to offer it to a player.
Lowe came to the Pirates in the 2026 offseason in a three-team deal with Tampa Bay and Houston which also brought Mason Montgomery and Jake Mangum to Pittsburgh. Lowe was traded before the final year of his contract after an All-Star campaign in 2025, and he put up even better numbers in 2026.
With the Pirates, Lowe fortified his defense at second base, flipping a -10 fielding run value in 2025 with the Rays to a +12 in Pittsburgh. He became a Gold Glove finalist for the first time in his career, and he also played a career-high 150 games while recording a career-best 5.4 wins above replacement (per Baseball Reference).
At the plate, Lowe showed off with 96 RBIs and an .824 OPS, while also leading all of baseball’s second basemen with 35 homers. He has never won a Silver Slugger, but he could be a finalist for the second year in a row.
As a leader in the clubhouse, Lowe helped shape a culture of young players that helped generate an 11-win improvement in Pittsburgh this year, as the team went from 71 wins in 2025 to 82 in ‘26. It was the Pirates' first winning season since 2018. Lowe also became a mainstay in the community, earning the team’s nomination for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award.
Before coming to Pittsburgh, Lowe was a two-time All-Star and received MVP votes in 2020 and ‘21 while helping the Rays to their second AL pennant in ‘20. For players who played at least 50% of their games at second base (min. 250 games played) since 2020, Lowe ranks first in home runs (169) and slugging (.482) while tying for second in OPS (.807). He’s part of a free-agent class that includes several options at second base, including Jazz Chisolm Jr. and Luis Arraez.
The previous two players who received a qualifying offer from the Pirates were catcher Russell Martin and lefty starter Francisco Liriano, both in 2014. Both rejected the offer, and Martin signed with the Blue Jays, giving Pittsburgh the 32nd overall pick in the next Draft as a compensatory measure. The pick turned out to be Ke’Bryan Hayes. Liriano rejected the offer, too, but re-signed with the Pirates on a three-year, $39 million deal.
Clubs had until five days after the end of the World Series to offer a player the qualifying offer, and the deadline to accept is 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 17. In the system implemented during the 2012-16 collective bargaining agreement and restructured under the 2017-21 CBA, clubs wishing to receive a compensatory Draft pick for the loss of a free agent can make a one-year “qualifying offer,” worth the mean salary of MLB’s 125 highest-paid players, to their impending free agents.
The measure is only allowed if a player has not received the qualifying offer before in their career and if they spent the entirety of the previous season with the club. The offer increased by 5.1% from last season, moving up from $23.15 million.
Entering the 2027 offseason, only 157 players have ever received the qualifying offer and 18 have accepted it. However, after the ’25 season, a record four players accepted their qualifying offers.
If Lowe were to sign elsewhere for $50 million or more, a likely scenario as he seeks a three- to four-year deal, Pittsburgh would receive a Draft pick between the first round and Competitive Balance Round A. If he were to sign elsewhere for under $50 million, the compensation pick comes after Competitive Balance Round B.
Lowe is set to hit the open market for the first time in his career after signing a six-year pre-arbitration extension with Tampa Bay in 2019. He’ll enter 2027 at 32 years old and fresh off one of the best seasons of his career.