Rangers announce Lewis deal and spring NRIs

The Texas Rangers have officially announced that Colby Lewis has been signed to a one year deal for the 2016 season.  The deal, which was reported during the holidays, is reportedly for $6 million.  Lewis had surgery on his right knee in October, and the beat guys on Twitter say he will start throwing off a mound at the start of spring training.

The Rangers have also announced who, within the organization, is getting non-roster invites to major league spring training.  Those players are:

Lewis Brinson

Ryan Cordell

Drew Robinson

Kellin Deglan

Brett Nicholas

Myles Jaye

Scott Williams

Francisco Mendoza

Brinson, of course, everyone knows about...he's the up-and-comer who had a breakout year in 2015, splitting the year between high-A, AA and AAA, and while he's not on the 40 man roster, he could be an option for center field at some point in 2016.

Cordell is a Patrick Kivlehan type, a guy who can play several positions and has some tools, but who has questions about his bat.  He's likely just getting exposure with this invite.

Robinson is in a similar position to Cordell...like Cordell, he profiles as a potential bench bat if he makes it to the bigs, and he had an interesting season in the minors in 2015, striking out a ton, but also walking a bunch and hitting some homers.  The lefty hitter has sort of a Mark Bellhorn profile, as a guy who can play 1B, 2B and 3B, and won't hit for average, but has enough secondary skills that he may be able to carve out a career.

Deglan and Nicholas are extra catchers for spring training, guys who likely aren't legit roster candidates, but are just providing enough gloves to catch all the extra spring arms.

Jaye was acquired in the Will Lamb trade, and is likely getting a look as a potential swing man/long man type for depth later in the season.

Mendoza is a 28 year old righthanded reliever who has been in the Rangers system forever, and who apparently was re-signed at some point in the offseason (he was eligible to be a minor league free agent after 2015).  He's one of these guys with a good arm who could, maybe, figure it out and provide some value out of the pen at some point.

Williams is the eye-opening guy on this list.  He pitched last season as a 21 year old, and was an 11th round pick in the 2014 draft out of someplace called "State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota," which appears to be a JuCo in Bradenton, Florida.  You don't expect a guy to get an NRI after his first full season of pro ball, particularly someone with an 11th round pedigree, but Wililams had a quality season in Hickory (49 Ks/15 walks in 43.1 IP, a 2.28 ERA), and he was 27th on Jamey Newberg's top 72 prospect list.