Rangers Re-sign Colby Lewis – Breakdown

The Texas Rangers announced that they have re-signed Colby Lewis to a one year minor league contract with an invite to spring training.

Colby Lewis’ contract is worth a pro-rated portion of $2 million while in the majors and could earn up to another $4 million in incentives. (per Evan Grant)

Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Lewis, who is 34 years old, has been plagued with injuries during his career.  In 2005, Lewis missed the entire season due to a shoulder injury to the rotator cuff and ended up having surgery to correct it.  Also, Lewis has now had two surgeries since he went on the disabled list during the middle of the 2012 season.  Lewis had surgery on his elbow in 2012 and hip surgery in August of 2013.  The hip surgery was done to remove bone spurs that were causing discomfort and pain. Lewis commented on his issues with his hip injury.

"“Me going out there, my fastball has inconsistencies,” Lewis said. “My consistency to repeat my delivery is not there. I’ve put myself in a situation where I haven’t given my arm a chance to get right either. I know going out there, my arm feels great at times. If my mechanics aren’t right with my hip, it feels sore at times.” (Sporting News)"

Prior to the hip surgery, Lewis was a very dominate right handed pitcher for the Texas Rangers.  In 2010 and 2011, Lewis had 2 of the best seasons of his career and was one of the key players to help the Texas Rangers reach the World Series.  Continuing to 2012, Lewis was on pace to have the season of his career but it as cut short due to injuries.

So far, with the Rangers, Colby Lewis has an ERA of 4.68 over 124 games, 683.0 innings.  Lewis has recorded 585 strikeouts and walked 244.

Colby Lewis was undoubtedly a star pitcher for the Texas Rangers after they brought him back over from Japan.

But should the Rangers rely on him for 2014 season?  Probably not, after 3 fairly major injuries, it is unlikely Colby Lewis will regain what he had in 2010 through 2012.  He was great, but 2010 was probably his peak.

But, I do hope Lewis does manage to find it in 2014 and does come back.

One of my favorite Lewis moment is when he swatted the ball with this glove to get the third out of the inning against the Atlanta Braves.   Check out the video here.

For his 8 years in the major league Colby Lewis has an ERA of 4.76 and a record of 4 -1 in the postseason with an ERA of 2.34.