Red Sox signing Nathaniel Lowe for playoff push after shocking release

The race to the top of the AL East didn’t stop at the trade deadline.

The Boston Red Sox are signing slugging first baseman Nathanial Lowe after he had been designated for assignment by the Nationals last week in favor of younger players, ESPN.com reported.

Lowe will join one of the most potent offenses in baseball with Boston in the midst of a tight American League playoff race.

After losing Tristan Casas earlier in the year to injury and former Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers refusing to step in before being traded to the Giants, Lowe figures to benefit from the opportunity by filling in at first base.

Abraham Toro and Remy Gonzalez primarily play first base, but the expectation is that position now turns into a platoon where Lowe gets the lion’s share of at-bats against right-handed pitching.

Toro had been getting those at-bats, but has fallen off of late and there is speculation he could be DFA’d as part of the move.

No official decision has been announced yet, though.

Lowe was in the midst of a career-worst season with the Nationals, hitting .216 with 16 home runs but still driving in 68 RBIs for one of the league’s lowest-rated offenses.

“We feel like we want to see the young kids,” Nationals interim manager and former Yankee Miguel Cairo said after the team decided to release Lowe. “We have young players, and I think we want to see them play. We want to see what they can do in the last month, month and a half.”

Lowe won a Silver Slugger award in 2022 while a member of the Rangers, when he hit 27 home runs with a 302 batting average.

Washington has had a mess of a lineup for most of the season, with the lone bright spot being James Wood.

They’ve opted to bring up Robert Hassell III, who was among the prospects sent from San Diego to the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade.

That deal has been a boon for the Nationals, who are otherwise bereft of talent, as Washington also received back Wood, Mackenzie Gore and CJ Abrams.

The 68-57 Red Sox are in second place in the AL East, five games back of the first-place Toronto Blue Jays and a half-game ahead of the rival Yankees.