The Texas Rangers non-tendered (basically released) three players late last night. Those players were:
Michael Kirkman – 4.98 ERA in 94 games over 5 seasons for the Rangers. Lots of fans will not be sad to see Kirkman go, but I wanted him to succeed. I liked the guy, but he just was not working out here in Texas.
Adam Rosales – hit .262 with 3 home runs in 56 games for the Texas Rangers. They may try to resign Rosales to a minor league deal if no other team offers him a major league contract, and he may be willing to take it. He is not a bad utility player, but he has no power and there is a reason he is a bench player.
Alexi Ogando – He was 2-3 with a 6.87 ERA last season with the Texas Rangers, and he has been riddled with injuries ever since the team made him a starter in 2011. He only got into 27 games in 2014. I was hoping that Alexi would be good going forward, but the Rangers saw all they wanted to and they were a little disappointed that he decided not to play winter ball. He will get picked up pretty quickly I would imagine.
Colby Lewis and the Texas Rangers are both hoping to get a deal done later this week according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
#Rangers expect to finalize deal for Colby Lewis this week. Will be part of 2015 rotation: http://t.co/HazwcMiqoE
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) December 3, 2014
I think that bringing Colby back would be great news for the Texas Rangers especially since they are going forward (at the moment) with a very young pitching staff that may include guys like Nick Tepesch and Nick Martinez. Colby is already familiar with those guys and he was a work horse for the team in 2014. Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Colby Lewis are not a terrible 3/5 of a rotation. I still feel like the Rangers have some moves to make with the pitching staff this off season, and I hope that signing Colby Lewis is one of those moves.
The Rangers were showing interest in Torii Hunter this off season, and once again they fell just short of signing the 39 year old outfielder. He decided to go back to the Twins according to reports.
The Minnesota #Twins win the Torii Hunter sweepstakes. He returns home on a 1-year contract in perhaps the final chapter of fabulous career.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 3, 2014
Torii lives in the area and it seemed that the Rangers showed interest in him every time he became a free agent, but always fell a little short of signing him. I think this will probably be his last contract, and he has had a great career. I wish the Texas Rangers could have signed him one of the times they went after him, but best of luck to a good guy going back to a place that he played a lot of years.
