Rejected then rekindled

BOSTON -- When the Boston Red Sox swung through Baltimore last month, third baseman Mike Lowell ran into a friend from South Florida who couldn’t hide his astonishment over how far his old high school classmate had come.

“He said, ‘You’re hitting cleanup for the Boston Red Sox. You know you were hitting eighth for Coral Gables High your junior year,’ ” Lowell said with a laugh. “So it’s a nice turn.”

Actually, that Lowell was batting anywhere for the Boston Red Sox this season qualified as a nice turn, considering he had been all but written off only two years ago. After three consecutive All-Star seasons in Florida, Lowell’s average dropped nearly 60 points -- to .236 -- in 2005, when he hit eight homers and had a career-low 58 runs batted in.

By midseason the Marlins were offering stars-in-waiting A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett to any team who would agree to take Lowell too. But they waited five months before finding a taker in Boston.

“Everyone was so convinced that my career was over,” Lowell said. “No one can really rationalize why you might have a bad year.”

One All-Star selection and a division championship later, Lowell has proved those detractors wrong by leading Boston into the playoffs and leaving the Red Sox glad they took the gamble.

“He’s been a blessing for us,” said Manager Terry Francona, whose team plays host to the Angels in the American League division series beginning Wednesday. “A lot of the things that were said about him and us acquiring him were very unfair. He’s been a good player for a lot of years.”

He has been a great player this year, topping the Red Sox with a career-high 120 RBIs and batting .324, 51 points above his career average, to match the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero for seventh-best in the American League. And that proved a blessing for Boston, which won its first division title in 12 seasons despite the fact an injured Manny Ramirez hit only 20 home runs and a hobbled David Ortiz hit fewer than 40 for the first time in four years.

“It’s been a great matchup, him going to Boston,” said Seattle Mariners outfielder Raul Ibanez, Lowell’s winter workout partner in Miami the last six years. “He’s better than ever. What he’s doing now is the player he is, is the player he has been.”

And what has fueled that resurgence are the doubts his 2005 slump stirred up.

“Basically he was a throw-in in that trade and he wanted to prove to everyone that he wasn’t washed up. And obviously he’s not,” said Juan Alvarez, a teammate of Lowell’s both in high school and with the Marlins and now a scout for the Texas Rangers.

Added Ibanez: “Even then I thought it was ridiculous. Why wouldn’t you want this guy?”

Few teams are likely to make that mistake this winter because Lowell, the guy the Marlins couldn’t give away, figures to be one of the most sought-after players on the free-agent market.

“It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “I’ve never been a free agent. It’s going to be something different. I’m actually looking forward to it.”

Among the teams that might show interest are the New York Yankees -- the team that drafted him in the 20th round in 1995 -- the Red Sox, Dodgers and Angels. But if you’re looking to see which way Lowell might be leaning, don’t make anything of the fact he has a framed Yankees jersey hanging on the wall of his South Florida home.

Because he has Red Sox and Marlins jerseys hanging right beside it.

“They actually helped me achieve my life’s goal as a professional,” Lowell, sitting in front of his locker in the bowels of Fenway Park, said of the Yankees. “I don’t rule anything out. I like it here. I like it here more than any other place. [But] I think it’s only human nature to, when you go to Anaheim, look at the team and see if that’s a potential fit.”

As for the Dodgers, Lowell said they remind him of the World Series-winning Marlins team he played on in 2003.

“Good young talent,” he said. “But still they’ve got more money where they can filter in veterans and have a good mix. So I think it’s only natural when you see teams that supposedly ‘need a third baseman’ to see if you fit in.”

There would seem to be very few places where Lowell, who will be 34 next season, wouldn’t fit in. With at least 20 homers and 80 RBIs in six of his eight full big league seasons, he has proven he can hit. And by beginning the season with the top fielding percentage by a third baseman in history, he has proven he can pick it too.

The Puerto Rican-born son of Cuban parents -- his father Carl, a prominent Miami dentist, once pitched for the Puerto Rican national team -- Lowell also is fluent in two languages, a valuable asset for a clubhouse leader. And as an academic All-American who entered Florida International University after scoring 1,210 on his high school SAT, he’s exceptionally bright too. He even has a brother who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That’s not to say everything has come easy for Lowell. Five months after making his major league debut with the Yankees, Lowell’s career -- and life -- were thrown into jeopardy when a routine physical found he had testicular cancer.

Three days before his 25th birthday he underwent surgery to have the tumor removed and three months later he was starting at third base for the Marlins. And though he has been cancer-free since, the episode frightened him, inspiring Lowell to establish a foundation to assist children fighting cancer.

“With all the stuff Mikey’s had to battle through in his life, I’m happy for him and it’s good to see that good things happen to good people,” said Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who played on a high school all-star team with Lowell. “Mikey’s come a long way because he weighed about 100 pounds in high school and was a singles hitter.”

Which is why the man who batted cleanup for the Red Sox down the stretch hit eighth in high school. Well, sometimes anyway. On his summer Pony League team he batted ninth, one spot behind another skinny kid who could also draw some interest as a free agent this winter.

Maybe you’ve heard of him. Guy by the name of Alex Rodriguez.

“I honestly didn’t think any of us had a chance to make it to the big leagues,” said Rodriguez, whose Yankees could meet Lowell’s Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. “It’s a miracle that both of us are in the big leagues. It’s pretty cool.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com

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Big producers

Mike Lowell’s 120 RBIs are the most for a Red Sox third baseman. Only four other American League third basemen have had as many RBIs in a season:

*--* Player, Team RBIs Year Alex Rodriguez, New York 156 2007 Al Rosen, Cleveland 145 1953 Alex Rodriguez, New York 121 2006 Mike Lowell, Boston 120 2007 Alex Rodriguez, New York 120 2005 Hank Majeski, Phila. Athletics 120 1948 Larry Gardner, Cleveland 120 1921 *--*

Final 2007 AL totals:

*--* Player, Team RBIs Alex Rodriguez, New York 156 Magglio Ordonez, Detroit 139 Vladimir Guerrero, Angels 125 Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay 121 Mike Lowell, Boston 120 David Ortiz, Boston 117 *--*