Is Jed Lowrie the Future at Shortstop in Boston?

Exit Julio Lugo; enter Jed Lowrie.

Boston's young shortstop returned to the lineup Saturday in the team's 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The team couldn't get its offense going against Jays' pitcher Marc Rzepczynsk, but one of the Sox' two runs was a homer by—guess who?—Jed Lowrie. Lowrie went 1-for-4 on the day.

Now here's the big question: Does Red Sox GM Theo Epstein believe that he has the team's longterm starting shortstop?

Lowrie has posted some average numbers in the majors in his short career. He is batting a career .245, but he has played solid defense at short. Lowrie does have some pretty impressive achievements in his minor league career in the Sox farm system, though.

He has played in all three levels (Lowell, Portland, and Pawtucket). In 2007, he was named MVP for the Portland Sea Dogs and made an appearance in the Eastern League All-Star Game. He finished the year with a .297 batting average, .410 on-base percentage, and a .501 slugging percentage in 93 games at Double-A and handled a promotion to Triple-A (.300/.356/.506) to earn Red Sox Minor League Offensive Player of the Year honors, but his offensive numbers haven't really carried over to the majors as much as his glove has.

Can Lowrie's minor league success translate over to the majors? I hope so, but yet again I'm not sure. I doubt this year. But that's OK because Boston has gotten a lot out of spring training non-roster invitee Nick Green.

Green is batting .252 and has four homers and 30 RBI. One of those home runs was a walk-off against the Atlanta Braves about a month ago at Fenway.

This will be an interesting season for Lowrie, but it won't be the deciding one for whether or not he is the longterm option because of his injury and the stand-out play of Green. All that matters to the Boston management is that the team is putting up some W's.