A Texas Rangers move that was widely speculated has officially come to fruition.

Texas has sent Nathaniel Lowe to the Washington Nationals in exchange for left-handed reliever left-handed reliever Robert Garcia.

The move comes less than two weeks after Texas traded for Jake Burger, who will presumably be their starting first baseman.

At face value, it’s easy to look at this trade and feel the Rangers didn’t get back nearly as much as they gave up, which is true in some aspects.

However, Lowe’s projected 10 million dollar salary plays a huge role in this. Saving the money will allow Texas to continue adding to their bullpen renovation and possibly grab another bat who can DH and play the outfield.

Think of this trade as the Rangers giving up Lowe for not only Garica but a closer along the lines of Kirby Yates or Tanner Scott and a potential bat such as Joc Pederson.

Not to mention, Garcia has some pretty impressive advanced metrics. Despite putting up just a 4.22 ERA in 59.2 IP last season, Garica ranks in the 97th percentile with a 2.53 expected ERA.

He also ranks in the 98th percentile for both barrel% and hard hit% as well as the 94th percentile in avg exit velocity and 90th in K%.

As for Lowe, it will no doubt sting to see such a key piece to the Rangers rebuild depart. Lowe was brought in before the 2021 season in which the Rangers lost 102 games.

Not to mention the next year in which Texas lost 94 games, Lowe hit .302 with 27 home runs to win the Silver Slugger.

In 2023 after being labeled as one of the worst defensive first basemen in all of baseball, Lowe turned himself into a Gold Glove winner while helping the team to its first World Series title.

Overall, during his time in Texas, Lowe slashed .274/.359/.432 with 79 home runs and an impressive 299 RBI.

Off the field, Lowe was a fan favorite notably taking off his shirt at the World Series parade and always making it a focus to give back to the DFW community.

With the recent movement in the first base market, it became easier to believe that Lowe would be a Ranger in 2025.

After Paul Goldschmidt signed with the Yankees, a team that was rumored to have some sort of interest in Lowe and the moment of Josh Naylor heading to Arizona and Carlos Santana heading back to Cleveland, it seemed there was an avenue for Lowe to stay.

However, the Rangers were ready to capitalize on the value that Lowe has in order to upgrade the rest of their team.