Struggles of Texas Rangers New First Baseman Look Worse As Former Star Shines

The Texas Rangers made a change at first base this offseason and the early returns have not been ideal, while their former star shines on his new team.

Apr 27, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger (21) looks to toss the ball to a teammate against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning at Oracle Park. | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers made a change at first base this offseason and the early returns have been mixed, while their former star player is doing great on his new team.

One of the first major moves that the Rangers made this offseason was sending over a haul of prospects to the Miami Marlins for third baseman/designated hitter Jake Burger.

With Burger on the roster and able to play first base, they decided to move on from Nathaniel Lowe and trade him to the Washington Nationals. It made some sense as Burger has been a solid slugger for this career and Lowe was set to hit free agency sooner.

Early returns on the moves have not been ideal for Texas as Burger has been in a major slump this year while Lowe has continued to look great with the Nationals.

The Rangers new first baseman has posted just a .180/.211/.326 slash line this year with three home runs and just 11 RBI. His OPS+ is all the way down at just 55.

He is on pace for just 18 homers this year, which would be a very disappointing mark after smashing 29 last year and 34 the year before.

The best thing about Burger has always been his consistency. He has hit exactly .250 for the last three years and always looked like a solid power slugger.

This campaign, though, he is striking out a bit more and barely drawing any walks. He has also been very unlucky, though. The contact he is making is still solid. His BABIP happens to be almost .080 lower than a year ago.

What has been at least a positive for Texas is that even though they gave up three prospects for him, none of those players have looked like regrettable losses so far.

It has more-so been that the player that they left behind in Lowe has been fantastic with Washington.

The 29-year-old has posted a .248/.325/.438 slash line with an OPS+ of 116. He has hit five home runs this year, which puts him on pace for 28, that would be a new career high for him.

Having that extra bump in power would be valuable in his this Rangers lineup as the current team leader is Wyatt Langford with four.

The best part of this entire exchange for Texas has been that they got Robert Garcia back from the Nationals for Lowe.

Garcia has been their best reliever so far with a 1.42 ERA over 12.2 innings of work. His ERA+ is uo to 271.

If Burger can return to form at some point, which isn't far fetched to be fair, this could still end being a solid switch for the Rangers. Right now, though, it is still questionable at best.