When the Pirates got second baseman Brandon Lowe in a trade from the Rays last December, they knew he’d provide a big boost to the team’s struggling offense. But he’s also made a huge difference defensively, which was completely unexpected.

Lowe had not finished a season with a positive Defensive Runs Saved total at the position, but this year he ranks among the second base leaders in Runs Saved. We talked to Lowe earlier this week about the changes he’s made and how they’ve made a difference, as well as the story behind some of his best plays of the season.

The interview can be found on The SIS Baseball Podcast too, along with one with Guardians catcher Austin Hedges. The written transcript below has been edited for clarity.

I know that you changed something significant coming into the year. It was written about on the Pirates website. Can you explain what you changed?

I wasn’t using my feet or I wasn’t being as, as athletic as I could. And our infield guy, Chris Truby, found that out immediately. As soon as I was traded over, he just told me, “Hey, narrow up your stance a little bit when you’re getting into, your ready position, and then add this little bunny hop, and that’s gonna help you out a lot.”

It truly has. That’s really the biggest thing that has been changed, and it seems to have been working.

How does it help?

I was very stagnant. I put my feet down. I was trying to react, but you had to put force back into the ground, get the force back out, and then start to get moving.

And this way, with the bunny hop, it’s all at one time. It’s quicker. It’s a little bit more timing and just easier to get it all together to get a quicker first step.

You don’t do it at the extreme of a Dustin Pedroia. It’s a smaller hop?

The first thing that got brought up when he talked about it was, “I can’t do a Pedroia hop.” His is way too high. I think the Matt Chapman’s of the world that are jumping and then get into a super deep squat, I don’t know how they do it. I don’t know how their legs stay up and how they can walk the next day. But that was just me understanding my body and how I was gonna be able to move. I was like “I need a toned-down version of this.” And he was like, “Yeah, absolutely, that’s not an issue.

I played around with it on multiple different things in spring training, trying to figure out what my height looked like, timing, all this stuff, and I made some plays in spring training that looked horrendous. I think I ran forward on a line drive because I’d never had that first step, so I was moving a little bit faster, a little bit more reactionary.

So, I was trying to figure it all out and learn the ropes and just trying to understand how I was gonna move differently. I feel like I’m a little more springy. I’m moving a little bit faster, so it’s all leading to what we’re seeing.

This was never suggested to you before, or you never thought to do it?

It never came up. It was just one of those things that, it was brought up in this off-season, and I was like, “You know what? You think that I can do this? I wanna be able to prove you guys right. Let’s go ahead and do it.”

With the Rays, your numbers were better on the road than they were on the turf at home. How has playing on grass helped you?

There’s two things in that aspect. Turf fields are usually domed, and domed parks are a little bit harder to see spin, all that stuff on a ball. So, I think that led things to maybe to go in a different direction. But also, the toll that the turf field takes on your body could have done something as well.

I think being out on natural grass, being out in fresh air, getting sunlight, all that other stuff has led to me feeling a lot better for longer throughout the season. You grew up playing on grass and dirt. The hops are more normal. I don’t know, it feels more normal.

What is the mental side of defense like for you, particularly then versus now? Because now you’re this guy that’s one of the top defensive players in the league, and in past years that might not have been the case.

Yeah. I think there’s a lot of doubt in the previous years of, “Do I make this play? Should I? What do I have to do in this situation? Is that the right call? Should I be doing this?” And now it’s like, “Hey, I can make those plays. I can do all this.” So, the confidence level has definitely jumped up a lot more, and I feel like that is one of the biggest things for any production, is if you’re doubting how good you are, you’re not gonna be as good as you can be.

Have they done anything for you positioning wise to put you in a good position to succeed this year, particularly on balls hit up the middle. We’ve noticed that you’re very strong there.

That’s another two-part answer. We get a positioning card that gives us a list of where on the field that they want us to start, but then a lot of it has to do with our pitchers, and we got some really good arms.

So, a lot of the time when you’re looking at it and it’s like, “All right, well, if he’s gonna throw a sinker in, he’s probably not gonna hit this ball in the four hole.” Or, if we got a lefty on the mound and it’s, “Hey, he’s gonna throw a sweeper away, he’s probably not gonna get around it and hit it past me in a four hole.

I can take a lean towards the other way. You play off of the pitchers as well, when you know what pitch they’re throwing with the pitch com You can get a little bit of an idea of, “Hey, if he executes his pitch, that, the guy hits it in my direction, it should be in this area.”

So, I went through all your web gems, and I found three that I really liked. One was the ridiculous play on the shortstop side of second base versus George Springer. Another was a line drive where you made this huge dive against Dalton Rushing on a ball that was hit 101, 102. And the third was a from-your knees glove-flip double play against Elly De La Cruz.

Am I missing any?

I like the Springer one a lot because our shortstop dove in front of me and I had to get back there, so I  took a little jab at him and was like, “Look man, I got range too.”

Well, you have a couple where you’ve gone and essentially gone to shortstop to make plays this year. I was watching a few others that fall into that category. Is there a story behind the story on either of the other two plays I mentioned?

Honestly, the Elly one, me and Triolo were talking about it. It’s pouring rain out. It’s gross outside. I think Elly at the time was like, 0-for 3 or 0-for-4 at the moment, and we had a runner on third base and one out. And Truby tells us, like, “Hey, we’re gonna be reactionary here. Do you wanna turn two or you can get the out of the plate, really dependent on what you guys think that you’re gonna do.” And we both looked at each other and we’re like, “There’s no way we can turn two on Elly.” He’s gonna be hard out of the box. There’s an RBI on the line, he’s not gonna wanna get doubled off. There’s no way. And then of course, the ball goes up the middle, I dive backhand and I’m like, “Oh, I have no shot to get the guy home. Let’s see what we can do here.” That one was shocking. I couldn’t believe that one came together that way.

What is it like being Konnor Griffin’s go-to guy for advice in the field?

(this was asked before news came that Griffin would miss time with a finger injury)

It makes you feel a little old at times. We would make jokes that he’s closer to my son’s age than I am to his age. But it’s a blast.

He knows what he can do, who he is, what  kind of ballplayer he is at 20 years old. That’s super impressive. He’s got all these tools. He’s got the range, he’s got the arm, and there’s a difference of arrogance and cockiness, I feel like. He’s got a little swagger about him. He knows he’s a good baseball player, but he’s never gonna say that he knows it all, or he doesn’t need any help, or he can do everything on his own. He’s always open to help. He’s always open for advice and whatnot, and I think that’s what’s gonna make him a dangerous threat in this league for a long time.

Is there anything that you find hard about playing second base this deep into your career?

The ball going up the middle, throwing cross-body. You have no momentum. You’re using just your arm. That’s probably the hardest one. You can’t really stop and plant and throw, so you’re just going completely against yourself and seeing if you can beat the guy there.

That’s what you’re doing best this year.

It doesn’t make it easy.

I like that you smiled when you said that.

What would you tell a kid who says, “I wanna play second base like he does”?

Oh, man.

The biggest thing is just repetition. Get out there, do the ground balls, have fun with it. But the more you’re out there doing it, the more reps you can have with it, the more that you’ll see every hop and every situation, and the more adjusted you’ll get to it, so when you’re in the game and you see that ball, it’s normal.