Texas Rangers Spring Training: 3 roster “locks” who are no longer safe

We’re not trying to be dramatic or anything, but there are some high ceiling players at Texas Rangers camp who are kind of, sort of in danger of missing the Opening Day cut.

Let me preface this by saying that this is spring training, so overreactions are merited, and quite frankly, expected.

That doesn’t mean spring training doesn’t have its relative importance, though. In fact, for many positions on the Texas Rangers roster, spring training means open competition, such as the ones happening at first base, third base, in the bullpen and in the rotation.

There have been some players at Rangers camp who have surprised and others who have been rather disappointing.

Let’s look at three players who were thought of as “locks” to make the Opening Day roster that may not necessarily be in that position unless they turn things around.

1B Nate Lowe

Nate Lowe was the presumed favorite to be the Texas Rangers’ first baseman on Opening Day.

It hasn’t been the spring training that either Nate Lowe or the Texas Rangers have expected to this point.

Actually, it’s been an outright struggle for Lowe.

In 15 spring at-bats so far, the 25-year-old has a paltry .533 OPS and just three total hits (none of which have been the vaunted home run).

The slugging first baseman drove in his first two runs of the spring in the Rangers’ 17-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday, but failed to record an RBI before that contest.

Lowe was brought to Texas to be the long-awaited answer to the Rangers’ first base drought and was the favorite to land the job going into spring training as a prized acquisition from Tampa during the off-season.

With Ronald Guzman performing exceptionally well this spring, though, I’m not sure Lowe’s path to the starting gig is as clear as it once was.

He’ll need to really turn it on over the next couple of weeks to reclaim what was thought to be his to lose.