Jon Daniel’s focus shifts to re-signing Colby Lewis

The Texas Rangers and Jon Daniels will now shift their focus on the Hot Stove season now that they’ve hired manager Jeff Banister.  One goal is re-sign Colby Lewis to a new deal.

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Daniels recently said that they have been busy with the manager search and now it’s time to work on the 2015 roster.

"“We haven’t been able to spend much time on that,” Daniels said. “We can get back to that now.” (Dallas News)"

The Texas Rangers have exclusive rights to negotiate with Colby Lewis until the final day of the World Series, which starts on Tuesday.   At this point all signs point to a deal being worked out.  Lewis has said in the past he wants to remain with Texas and he appears to have a solid relationship with the team and the front office.

If the Rangers are able to bring Colby Lewis back on a good deal that should help them in the rebuilding process of the starting rotation.  This season the pitching staff saw a record level of injuries and lost several key players. By the start of Spring Training the Texas Rangers should have Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Colby Lewis in the starting rotation.  Sometime mid-season Martin Perez will return from Tommy John surgery.  That means they still need to find 2 other starters for the rotation.  The could make a big signing during the offseason, but it seems unlikely.  That means Nick Martinez, Nick Tepesch, Miles Mikolas, Lisalverto Bonilla and others will be auditioning for a job during Spring Training. More than likely that still leave Colby Lewis as the number 4 or 5 pitcher in the rotation.  

Lewis could emerge from Spring Training a bit higher in the rotation if he’s able to start like he finished the 2014 season. After a rough start in the 2014 season he was able to bounce back and find a bit of the old Lewis that helped the Rangers reach the playoffs in 2010 and 2011.  He his last 12 games of the season he was able to pitch 6 or more innings 10 times.  For the second half of the season he had a 3.86 ERA with a 1.228 WHIP and 2 complete games.

His record was only 4-8, but it’s fair to say his record isn’t a true reflection on how well he pitched.  Many times during the second half of the season the offense wasn’t able to score when Lewis held the score low.

It would seem likely that over the next week or so while the World Series is going on that Jon Daniels will be working hard with Colby Lewis’s agent to get a deal done.  After the way he finished last season it makes total sense that they should and that it’s a good idea.  Lewis still has plenty of gas in the game and could make a huge impact in the rotation next season.