Nathaniel Lowe Trade Breakdown
At 4:41 PM on Thursday December 22nd, Jeff Passan tweeted saying that Nathaniel Lowe has been traded to the Washington Nationals. Five Minutes later he tweeted the return being left-handed reliever Robert Garcia. This trade caught me by surprise, I was kind of shocked by this move. Let’s dive into this move more.
At first I will admit I did not like this move at first, but the more I dove into the return the Rangers got; I was good with the move. The player we got back in the deal is Robert Garcia a left-handed reliever. The Rangers were in desperate need of bullpen arms coming into the offseason after losing Kirby Yates, David Robertson, and Jose Leclerc. All three of those arms lead our bullpen in strike outs. Yates was our closer, Robertson was the 8th inning guy, and Leclerc was the former closer. In addition, Josh Sborz a high leverage arm got a debridement procedure in the right rotator cuff. Sborz’s estimated return is June-July so it will sort of be like a trade deadline acquisition. Nathaniel was a valuable part to the Rangers in every season he was a Ranger. He was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays in 2021 to the Texas Rangers in exchange for 1B/OF Heriberto Hernandez, INF Oslevis Basabe, and OF Alexander Ovalles. The Rangers got Nate Lowe and 1B Jake Guenther in the trade.
As for Robert Garcia his story is quite interesting. Garcia was drafted in the 2017 draft in the 15th round 450th overall. He remained in the royals minor league system until December 8th when he was claimed off waivers by the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp a minor league affiliate of the Miami Marlins. A post on X/Twitter made by Jared Sadler is very interesting for Garcia.
After 2021 it seemed to be go Garcia’s way. In 2023 he made his debut for the Marlins on July 14th where he pitched a 1/3 of an inning giving up one hit and one walk. However, his second appearance came with the Washington Nationals on August 6th where pitched 2 innings, walking a hitter, and striking out 2 hitters. In 2023 Garcia ended with a 3.66 ERA in 32 innings pitched and striking out 33 hitters, holding opponents to a .234 average. His analytical numbers look really good. If you are familiar with the Baseball Savant website then when you pull up Garcia’s savant page you will understand his game. Though he posted a 4.22 ERA he was still really good. His xERA was in the 97th percentile at a 2.53 xERA, his FIP was at a 2.38. His off-speed run value, Barrel %, and Hard-Hit % are at 98th percentile which is really good. He also has a 94th percentile in chase rate %, and a 90th percentile in K % which are really good stats to have. As well as a good weapon in the bullpen, I think it is crucial to have swing and miss in the bullpen. Garcia looks to be in a high leverage role this year which we all hope he succeed. Garcia isn’t a free agent until 2030. The Rangers did good in this trade getting back a controllable bullpen arm so they don’t have to go through their issue this year of completely rebuilding your bullpen. Listening to the DLLS Rangers podcast on Monday the day after the trade, Jeff Wilson who covers the Rangers said,”I heard Joe Pederson and trading Nathaniel Lowe back in October.” Joc Pederson who the Rangers signed early Monday morning around 4AM.
