Brandon Lowe leads the Pittsburgh Pirates in home runs, runs batted in and on-base plus slugging percentage this season. The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — When the National League second basemen were named for next Tuesday night’s 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Ballpark, the Pirates’ Brandon Lowe was prominent by omission.

Despite leading the Pirates in home runs (21) and RBIs (64) and carrying an eye-opening OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of .820 through the Buccos’ first 92 games this season, Lowe — a two-time American League All-Star selection in 2019 and 2025 with the Tampa Bay Rays — is currently on the outside looking in as next week’s Midsummer Classic approaches.

Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies was the game’s top selection by fans, while San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez was selected as a reserve via a combination of player ballot results and choices made by the MLB Commissioner’s Office.

Lowe could still be selected as an injury replacement for the game, but with his home run and RBI numbers for the first half of the season considerably ahead of those posted by both Albies and Arraez, there’s a very strong argument that Lowe should have been selected first outright among all NL second basemen.

Nonetheless, Lowe isn’t spending any time brooding about what appears to be an egregious injustice.

“(Making it to) the all-star game is a cool accolade, but it’s not the end product,” Lowe said recently at PNC Park. “As a player, it’s not (the top thing that) you’re striving for in a season.”

Lowe — a native of Suffolk, Va,, who played collegiate baseball at the University of Maryland — has been snakebitten in his All-Star Game history.

Despite being selected for the All-Star Game twice, he didn’t see action in either. He sat out the 2019 All-Star Game with a bruised right shin, and missed the 2025 all-star game with left oblique tightness.

“I had my best season in 2021, and wasn’t selected that year,” Lowe pointed out.

That’s because Lowe, now 32, endured a poor first half that season but picked things up like gangbusters in the second half, winding up with a career single-season best in homers (39) and RBIs (99) while finishing tenth in the American League’s Most Valuable Player voting.

Whether Lowe takes the field among the stars in Philadelphia next week doesn’t matter nearly as much to him as whether he can help the Pirates to secure a berth in the National League playoffs this October.

“This is a really good team and we’ve got a really good chance,” Lowe said of the Pirates, whose playoff prospects are viable because the top six teams — three division winners and three Wild Card finishers – now qualify for the postseason in both the National and American Leagues.

“Offensively, we’ve been really good,” Lowe added. “It will just be a matter of everybody here playing to their potential in the second half of the season. There is a lot of baseball left to play but we’re setting ourselves up to be in a pretty good spot.”

Particularly in the Wild Card race, where a glut of teams in both leagues figure to be in the playoff hunt past Labor Day.

When the 5-foot-9, 181-pound Lowe signed a one-year, $11 million contract with the Pirates last offseason, he publicly expressed his desire and enthusiasm to hit in what are friendly dimensions for left-handed sluggers at PNC Park.

Heretofore, however, Lowe said that clearing the 21 foot-high Roberto Clemente Wall with home runs has been anything but a foregone conclusion.

“Honestly, it’s been a little bit harder (than initially anticipated),” Lowe said. “You’ve got to hit the ball pretty high here (to clear the wall). Some of the balls I’ve hit here weren’t hit extremely high.

“They were hit a little lower (and didn’t go for home runs),” Lowe added. “I’ve hit some balls well here but I’ve also hit a couple balls badly that have gone off the wall. So there’s been a give and take to it.”

Lowe’s modesty appears to be endearing, but everybody around the Pirates organization would take polite issue with it.

Indeed, the Bucs’ acquisition of Lowe in a three-team trade involving Tampa Bay and the Houston Astros is one of the principal reasons why the Pirates’ totals in many key offensive categories have skyrocketed from worst to nearly first in the National League this season.

Count Pirates’ hitting coach Matt Hague as one of the strongest believers in Lowe’s talents.

“Of course,” Hague said when asked if Lowe’s presence has lengthened and strengthened the Pirates’ batting order this season. “Any time that you’ve got somebody with his skill set, his attention to detail, and how he goes about his work, it’s infectious with the other guys on the team.

“Just the way that he views hitting is contagious with the other guys,” Hague added. “He does a lot of things right. There’s his quick hands, there’s his swing path, his athleticism, his bat control and his stability. He knows what he’s doing.”

Off the field as well as on it.

Lowe and his wife, Madison, have always recognized the importance of community service and have carried their humanitarian torch seamlessly to Pittsburgh from their days in Tampa.

The Lowes have focused their community service and charitable work on two deeply personal major causes — mental health awareness and financial support for families battling infertility.

Impacted by the death by suicide of his uncle and striving to do his part to end the stigma surrounding mental illness, Lowe created the “Home Runs for Hope” campaign in Tampa, originally donating $100 for every home run that he hit to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

In 2025, Lowe won the inaugural “Giving Bowl” bracket fundraiser hosted by the Baker and Emily Mayfield Foundation, securing a massive prize donation for the Tampa Crisis Center.

In Pittsburgh, the Lowes are donating $250 for every home run that Brandon hits to Pirates Charities to support regional mental health programming.

Following their own difficult, three-year journey with in vitro fertilization to conceive their son Emmett, the Lowes realized how cost prohibitive that fertility treatments can be for most families. They partnered with the non-profit Baby Quest Foundation to provide financial grants to help couples struggling with infertility, and, following their arrival in Pittsburgh, the Lowes hosted a “Mystery Ball” fundraiser at PNC Park that raised over $8000 for fertility resources.

“When we signed our first contract in Tampa, the first thing that we talked about is how we are going to give back to the community, and we’re doing the same thing here in Pittsburgh — it’s never changed,” said Brandon Lowe, who also hosted youth baseball and softball clinics in Tampa and provided free coaching and equipment to the young players.

Speaking of contracts, Lowe will likely be due for the biggest payout of his career when he hits the free agent market this offseason. Whether he continues his career in Pittsburgh remains to be seen, but Lowe is putting those thoughts on the backburner for now.

“We’ve enjoyed our time here, but obviously contract negotiations go 50-50, and other teams will be involved as well,” Lowe said. “We’ll see what happens when we get there.

“Looking too far ahead can take away from the joy that we’re experiencing now.”

The Lowe file

Age: 32.

Hometown: Suffolk, Va.

Position: Pittsburgh Pirates’ second baseman.

Acquired: A two-time all-star selection as a member of the American League’s Tampa Bay Rays, Lowe was acquired by the Pirates last offseason as part of a three-team trade with the Rays and Houston Astros. The Pirates signed him to a one-year, $11 million contract for 2026, with a club option. Lowe will be a free agent following this season.

Season update: In the Pirates’ first 92 games this season, Lowe leads the team in home runs (21), RBIs (64), on-base percentage (.820), and slugging percentage (.498).

Personal: Lowe and his wife Madison are the parents of two children, son Emmett (born in January 2023), and daughter Bella Wren (born in November 2024).