Texas Rangers’ first focus: re-signing RHP Colby Lewis
Now that the Texas Rangers’ general manager Jon Daniels has found his new manager, former Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister, his first order of business is to re-sign starting pitcher Colby Lewis, according to Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News.
Daniels had put aside securing his roster for next season saying,
"“We haven’t been able to spend much time on that,” Daniels said. “We can get back to that now.”"
Daniels said that the number one thing on his to-do list was getting in touch with Lewis’ agent Alan Nero to begin negotiating with him and Lewis, hopefully before Lewis is declared a free agent and other teams have the opportunity to negotiate with the right-hander.
Lewis is set to be a free agent once the World Series concludes. Until then the Texas Rangers can exclusively talk to Lewis about keeping him on the team next season.
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It’s interesting that Lewis is Daniels’ top priority, being that the 35-year-old hasn’t had the strongest career. He’s played nine seasons in the big leagues and is 54-58 with a 4.84 ERA.
Lewis, who came up into the league in 2002 with the Rangers, missed the entire 2005 season with an injury, spent 2008 and 2009 playing in the minors and missed most of the 2012 and 2013 seasons with a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow.
In 2014 Lewis led the league in losses, going 10-14 with a 5.18 ERA. The losses are obviously not all on Lewis being that the Rangers’ had more injured players last season than any of the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball but his ERA still appears to be worrisome.
Although Daniels did not elaborate on why Lewis is his top priority, it does seem strange that he is so focused on a pitcher with the kind of background that Lewis has.
Possibly there is something about Lewis that Daniels is aware of and the public is not because otherwise it seems like the Rangers’ GM might just be wasting his time.