Nathaniel Lowe wasn’t exactly shocked when he got the news Sunday.
The Rangers first baseman had already seen his team acquire corner infielder Jake Burger from the Marlins this month, and there were rumblings they were in the market for Joc Pederson as well. He seemed to be getting squeezed out of his everyday job, maybe squeezed out of Texas altogether.
So when his phone rang Sunday and the caller ID showed “Chris Young,” Lowe correctly guessed he had just been traded. The only question was where he was going.
“When you see the GM’s phone pop up in the middle of winter, that’s kind of usually how that goes. It’s my second time getting traded in the winter,” Lowe said during a Zoom call with reporters Monday. “I’m excited for a new opportunity. And when he said I was going to Washington, I was like: ‘Let’s go for it!’”
Acquired by the Nationals for reliever Robert Garcia, Lowe has had 24 hours to process the news and look forward to a new challenge. The 29-year-old is embracing this one, in large part because it stirs up echoes of his joining the Rangers in 2021 after getting limited playing time the previous two seasons with the Rays.
“The pieces may not all be there yet, but I was a part of a Texas team … my first year we were terrible,” he said. “And we didn’t have the big names. We had good players. To see it grow into what it grew into was so special. And it feels like another opportunity to do something like that.”
The 2021 Rangers lost 102 games, then 94 the following season. But with the development of some young players from within and the additions of several big-name veterans from the outside, they completely flipped the switch in 2023 and won the franchise’s first World Series.
Lowe was the everyday first baseman on that championship club, having won a Silver Slugger Award in 2022 and then a Gold Glove Award in 2023. He was relatively inexperienced compared to the likes of teammates Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Adolis García. Now, he’s suddenly the experienced one in Washington, joining a roster filled with guys who were barely alive at the turn of the century.
“It’s kind of odd. Looking at all the ’97s and ’98s and 2000s on the roster is a new experience,” he said. “Now being a guy who can be a voice of reason in the clubhouse and can definitely help this younger core continue to develop is going to be a new challenge, and it’s going to be something exciting.”
The Nationals, who have two years of club control on Lowe before he can become a free agent, see a guy with a track record for patience at the plate, potential to hit for power and a smooth glove at first base.
Patience has always been part of Lowe’s offensive game; he’s delivered a walk rate better than 12 percent in all but one of his full big-league seasons. (The major league average is 8.5 percent.) He saw an average of 4.15 pitches per plate appearance this year, same as James Wood (who led all regular Nats hitters).
“If you get 27 outs, the idea is not to make any of them easy,” he said. “If you can work an at-bat longer, see some pitches, grind down a starter, get somebody tired so the guy behind you can tee off, I think controlling the count and being patient is a good way to go about that.”
Lowe doesn’t want patience to overtake power, though. He hit a career-high 27 homers in 2022 but saw that total drop to 17 and 16 each of the last two seasons. He is determined to bring that total back up in 2025.
“That’s a big piece of what’s going to make me the best version of me,” he said. “The first baseman in the middle of a lineup needs to be able to drive the ball out of the ballpark consistently, drive in runs consistently. … I need to do a better job of maximizing my power production.”
Lowe also intends to continue working in the field to ensure he remains an elite defensive first baseman. He flat-out referred to himself as “a terrible defender” in 2021 when he joined the Rangers, but consistent work with Texas infield coach (and former Nationals coach and minor league manager) Tony Beasley helped him develop into a Gold Glove winner who also scores high on defensive analytics.
“It’s been great to see the computer agree with how I’ve played defense,” he said. “But the same thing goes for trusting a pitching staff. When the pitcher gets over and covers, all I have to do is knock it down and throw it to him. It’s a team thing, for sure. But defense has been something that I think has improved drastically, and I’m very proud of it.”