Nate Lowe Traded to Rangers

[Simba2020]

Apparently the Rangers and Rays have agreed on a trade for Nate Lowe for prospects. The exact players involved are yet to be determined. Lowe would have seemed a nice fit for the Brewers. Is he somebody the Brewers could have swung a deal for?

[DR28]

No kidding, Lowe would have been a perfect fit for us a 1B!!

 

Doesnt sound like there was any big prospects involved... It was a six player deal tho.

[Simba2020]

No kidding, Lowe would have been a perfect fit for us a 1B!!

 

Doesnt sound like there was any big prospects involved... It was a six player deal tho.

Baseball America had Heriberto Hernandez as the Rangers #21 prospect on their latest update, Osleivis Basabe as their #14 prospect and Alexander Ovalles wasn't rated at all. Doesn't seem like too much to give up.

[DR28]

No kidding, Lowe would have been a perfect fit for us a 1B!!

 

Doesnt sound like there was any big prospects involved... It was a six player deal tho.

Baseball America had Heriberto Hernandez as the Rangers #21 prospect on their latest update, Osleivis Basabe as their #14 prospect and Alexander Ovalles wasn't rated at all. Doesn't seem like too much to give up.

 

Yea definitely not... Jesus christ, he would have been a perfect long term fit for us... That's annoying.

[Eye Black]

Nate Lowe is fine and would've been an interesting trade target for the Brewers, but he's also a corner bat with a sub-.800 OPS who thus far throughout his young MLB career has only appeared in 71 games. They play different positions, but I wonder if this trade could preclude something involving Joey Gallo. Gallo only has two more years under contract and the Rangers aren’t likely to be competitive next year.

 

The best prospect the Rangers are sending back in the deal (C Heriberto Hernandez) seems like a solid get for the Rays. Mario Feliciano would've probably been the closest equivalent the Brewers have in their farm system, although Hernandez is much younger and has put up more impressive offensive numbers at a young age.

 

Also, just making sure we aren't mixing up Rays' hitters here? Obviously Nate Lowe (pronounced "LOW") is an inferior baseball player to Brandon Lowe (pronounced "LAU").

 

Don't get me wrong, I too would've been intrigued by Nate Lowe but it also would've required a bit of a leap of faith for the Brewers.

[umphrey]

I would have beat that package in a heart beat. Lowe is any every day 1B and we probably cycle 3 or more hopeless retreads during his time in TX.

[MNBrew]

The catcher Tampa got in return isn't MLB ready, just 5 days short of 21 and only made up to low A-ball in '19. That doesn't solve Tampa's regular-season 26-man C shortage. It seems they could still be a match for a logjam-breaking Nottingham/Pina/Narvaez trade (only 1 of the 3, just to be clear).

[adambr2]

Keep in mind that the Rays have about as good of a batting average in trade valuation as a team can have, so if they don't see Lowe as an adequate MLB starting 1B in what they've seen from him so far in their organization, I trust that that valuation is probably accurate.

[sveumrules]

Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs seems to like the guys Tampa is getting back...

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/rangers-pay-a-steep-price-to-add-another-1b-dh-in-nate-lowe/

 

To give you some context, Hernandez (50 FV), who turns 21 next week, is the type of college-aged hitting prospect who I’d have evaluated similar to Orioles 2020 first-rounder Heston Kjerstad, a college bat worthy of a top-ten pick in a draft. The 20-year-old Basabe (40+ FV) is a high-variance, late-second-round sort of prospect, and Ovalles (35+ FV) is the kind of player who’d get a mid-six-figure deal on day three of the draft, though it’s likely not all teams think of him that way.

[Austin Tatious]

Keep in mind that the Rays have about as good of a batting average in trade valuation as a team can have, so if they don't see Lowe as an adequate MLB starting 1B in what they've seen from him so far in their organization, I trust that that valuation is probably accurate.

 

Good point. Avi Garcia is a good example. He had that .330 year and he’s a big kid who can run. But we saw his game, and it was a bad acquisition especially at that whopping salary. Our analytics guys missed on that one. The Rays did not.

[Underachiever]

 

Orioles 2020 first-rounder Heston Kjerstad,

 

Is that Keston Hiura's evil twin?