DataBaseball
2026
Nathaniel Lowe headshot

Players · L · 1B · 2026

Nathaniel Lowe

Age
31
B/T
L/R
Height
6' 4"
Weight
220 lb
Number
#46
Born
July 7, 1995 in Norfolk, VA, United States
MLB debut
April 29, 2019
Drafted
2016, round 13
College
Mississippi State
High school
Pope
dbWAR
14.1
8 season(s)
PA
420
AVG
.251
OBP
.319
SLG
.447
wRC+
113
100 = avg

Nathaniel Lowe is a first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds. So far in 2026 he has hit 17 home runs and knocked in 60 RBIs, notching 94 hits across 420 plate appearances in 121 games. His batting average is .251, 3.0% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .319 clip and slugged .447, for an OPS of .766, 6.5% higher than the league mark of .719 — the third best on his team, and 120th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.4 mph off the bat, hit 42.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 8.7% of them and made contact on 77.9% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 113 wRC+ puts his offence 13% above average. That comes to 1.2 dbWAR — +5.0 runs with the bat, +0.7 for the ballpark, -0.5 on the bases, +0.7 on double plays, -6.9 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+113
wOBA.333
ISO.195
BB%9.0%
WAR1.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +11.9 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting+5.0Ballpark+0.7Baserunning-0.5Double plays+0.7Position-6.9Replacement+13.0
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

4.52.20.01920212223242526

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026CIN/CLE12142094176003899.251.319.447.195.2929.0%23.6%.333+5.01131.2
2025WSH/BOS1526091231884162159.228.307.381.154.28510.2%26.1%.304-5.8920.7
2024TEX1405651291669271125.265.361.401.136.32412.6%22.1%.340+13.21262.5
2023TEX1617241631782193165.262.360.414.152.32912.8%22.8%.343+13.81102.2
2022TEX1576451792776248147.302.358.492.191.3637.4%22.8%.370+30.21394.5
2021TEX1576421471872880162.264.357.415.151.33912.5%25.2%.341+12.71172.5
2020TB2176154111928.224.316.433.209.31411.8%36.8%.315-0.4960.1
2019TB491694071901350.263.325.454.191.3407.7%29.6%.331+1.21090.4

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP464240210.095.152.119.13321.7%
vs RHP37433290173689.271.340.488.35823.8%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 280 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 276 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
8.7%
24 barrels
Exit velocity
89.4
mph average
Max exit velo
112.7
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
42.0%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
40.9%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
14.8°
average
Barrel rate8.7%
Exit velocity89.4 mph
Hard hit rate42.0%
Contact rate77.9%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.048.154.103.097.28025 AB.29737 AB.12516 AB.46226 AB.36444 AB.32434 AB.17617 AB.35742 AB.21428 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Nathaniel Lowe hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations420——————.251.319.447.333
Bases empty23421145992161.213.291.393.304
Runner on first86792349719.291.349.506.372
Runners on186163498511738.301.355.515.370
RISP10084264421019.310.360.524.368

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Nathaniel Lowe beside up to three others.

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Nathaniel Lowe

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.