The season is early, but the Rangers are already reaping from young players from trades and dealings earlier this year.
This past series against the Blue Jays opened a lot of eyes and raised many hopes for this young lineup for the rest of the season.
Guys like Jonah Heim, Nate Lowe, and Dane Dunning came in with some buzz around their names already as highly touted prospects with good potential. This past series had everything from terrible pitching to fireworks on offense, then bad defense to not so bad defense.
Who shined the most, however, were Lowe and Dunning with a little Heim sprinkled in. All are key cogs in this revamped lineup for the near future and have made some strong impressions to start 2021. After Lowe’s 2 HR and 4 RBI night, he expressed that he is a “definitely a result of the process of this team being a team.”
The team-first attitude is one of the things Chris Woodward likes about Lowe.
“A lot of guys, Kiner being one of them, they feed off of that. They love the guy’s energy. It’s not a passive approach. He’s ready to hit,” Woodward said about Lowe.
Photo: —If Lowe continues his hot start, it’ll be hard for Woodward to take him out of the lineup, meaning Ronald Guzman could be left on the outside looking in most days if he can’t keep up with Lowe at the plate.
Dane Dunning was brought in from the White Sox through the Lance Lynn trade earlier this year and earned his first win as a Ranger in his first start of 2021.
Going 5 innings, he only allowed 3 hits, and 1 earned run vs. the Blue Jays and a talented roster.
“I was able to command the zone pretty well with my sinker, just going back and forth from each side of the plate,” Dunning said about his start.
It was a good outing for the rookie looking to keep his momentum going into the season.
Jon Daniels seemed to step it up this past offseason by making more than the usual amount of moves and transactions that we were all used to. Right now, we see some of the rewards of his trades.
Now the question is, how consistent can these young players be? We have seen a flash in the pan, the proverbial lightning in the bottle, but we haven’t seen them slump yet.
What will happen in the face of adversity when it happens for these rookies?
Only time will tell, but right now, the trades are paying off.
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