Nathaniel Lowe makes immediate impact vs Braves upon his return to Rangers

The Rangers' first baseman didn't miss a beat when he returned from the IL over the weekend.

Eric Cole

Los Angeles Angels v Texas Rangers / Aaron Doster/GettyImages

Coming into the 2024, many thought that the Texas Rangers were going to be an offensive juggernaut. They were bringing back the vast majority of the lineup that was the second-best offense in baseball last year behind just the Braves, and were adding a full season of Evan Carter plus highly-touted rookie Wyatt Langford.

While the offense hasn't been "bad" in 2024 per se, the Rangers' position players rank just eighth in MLB by fWAR (4.1) thanks to some sluggish starts and a less than timely fluke injury to Josh Jung, which just hasn't been enough to overcome their struggles with the pitching staff.

Another problem has been that Texas has been without starting first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. Lowe suffered an oblique injury this spring that had kept him on the IL for the first few weeks of 2024 before getting activated and making his triumphant return with the Rangers against the Braves this past weekend. Lowe made his presence immediately known with a couple hits against Atlanta in the Rangers' win on Sunday Night Baseball.

Rangers News: Nathaniel Lowe's return from IL pays immediate dividends

While there were a number of reasons why the Rangers beat the Braves on Sunday, including Adolis Garcia continuing his rampage and Evan Carter finally getting on the board with his first home run, it was really nice to see Lowe contribute right away after a lengthy absence. While Jared Walsh did his best to fill in for Lowe, he was unable to replicate Lowe's steady offense over at first base.

Texas already has a number of guys who can be feast or famine in their lineup. Corey Seager has been known to be streaky and isn't off to the best start this season, and Adolis Garcia can either look like Babe Ruth or disappear at times (right now, he is the former). Having a guy like Lowe in the lineup who gets on base at a high clip can only help to keep innings going and take the pressure of struggling young guys like Langford to contribute immediately.

While the Rangers did lose their series against the always tough Braves, Lowe's return does feel like it could be the beginning of a turnaround for an offense that is going to have to be operating in peak form if Texas is going to be able to weather all of the team's injuries on the pitching side of things.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.