Nathaniel Lowe Among Top MLB First Basemen
Nathaniel Lowe is coming off a career season and MLB.com has named him a Top 10 first baseman going into the 2023 season.
Lowe was selected Rangers 2022 Player of the Year by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the BBWAA after earning his first-career Louisville Silver Slugger award as a first baseman.
He set career highs in all four slash categories (.302/.358/.492/.851), home runs (27), RBI (76), hits (179) and total bases (292), becoming the first Ranger to bat .300-or-better since Elvis Andrus (.302) and Adrián Beltré (.300) both did it in 2016.
Lowe, No. 8 on MLB.com's first basemen list, was eligible for salary arbitration for the first time this offseason, but he and the Rangers avoided it with a one-year deal worth a reported $4.050 million.
Lowe’s teammate, Corey Seager, was named a top 10 shortstop by Audacy.com earlier this week.
St. Louis’ Paul Goldschmidt, the National League’s Most Valuable Player, was named the No. 1 overall first baseman. The rest of the top 10 (in order) were the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Houston Astros’ Jose Abreu, New York Mets’ Pete Alonso, Atlanta Braves’ Matt Olson, Seattle Mariners’ Ty France, Lowe, Minnesota Twins’ Luis Arraez and Philadelphia Phillies’ Rhys Hopkins.
Meanwhile, the Rangers signed Pablo Guerrero, the brother of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., to an international contract this week.
Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training to the team’s facility in Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 15, with position players to follow by Feb. 20.
The Spring Training game schedule starts on Feb. 24 with a game against Kansas City at the Surprise complex shared with the Royals.
The Rangers will wrap up their exhibition season with a pair of games at Globe Life Field against the Royals on March 27 and 28. The Rangers open up the regular season at home against Philadelphia on March 30.
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