Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Lowell returns to Sox

Courtesy of the Boston Red Sox

RED SOX AGREE TO TERMS WITH THIRD BASEMAN MIKE LOWELL

ON THREE-YEAR CONTRACT THROUGH 2010 SEASON

BOSTON, MA—The Boston Red Sox today agreed to terms with third baseman Mike Lowell on a three-year contract extending through the 2010 season. No further terms were disclosed.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Lowell, who had been eligible for free agency, will return to the Red Sox after being originally acquired in a seven-player trade with the Florida Marlins on November 24, 2005. The 33-year-old third baseman batted .324 with 21 homers and 120 RBI in 154 games with Boston in 2007.

Lowell ranked fifth in the American League in RBI, had the seventh highest batting average and also ranked among the league leaders in hits (T7th, 191), sacrifice flies (T8th, 8), and total bases (11th, 295). He set career bests for batting average, hits, RBI, and on-base percentage (.378). His 120 RBI were the fifth most by an American League third baseman since 1950 and the most ever for a Red Sox third baseman.

The first Boston third baseman ever with consecutive 20-homer seasons, Lowell also had the third highest home batting average in the major leagues at .373. He was selected to play in the All-Star Game for the fourth time, first in the American League, and finished fifth overall in the 2007 A.L. BBWAA Most Valuable Player voting.

Lowell batted .353 (18-51) with two homers and 15 RBI in 14 post-season games in 2007. He was the selected as the World Series Most Valuable Player after hitting .400 (6-15) with a homer and four RBI in Boston’s four-game sweep of Colorado.

It was also announced today that Lowell has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 Thomas A. Yawkey Award as the Red Sox Most Valuable Player. Lowell becomes just the third Red Sox third baseman to ever capture the team’s MVP award, joining Frank Malzone (1957 and 1959) and Wade Boggs (1985). The award is selected in voting by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Originally selected by the New York Yankees in the 1995 First Year Player Draft, Lowell has a career major league batting average of .280 with 184 homers and 778 RBI in 1,296 games with the Yankees (1998), Marlins (1999-2005), and Red Sox (2006-07). He has six seasons with at least 20 homers and has driven in at least 100 runs on three occasions.

He has a .976 (82 errors/3,349 total chances) fielding percentage in 1,253 games at third base, the highest fielding percentage in major league history among third basemen with at least 1,000 games.