Texas Rangers rumors: Rangers officials miss Colby Lewis

Texas Rangers rumors: Colby Lewis is a free agent, and officials with the Texas Rangers are “starting to miss Lewis,” according to T.R. Sullivan on Twitter. With Tyson Ross starting the season on the disabled list, and Andrew Cashner likely to be on the d.l. on Opening Day as well, the Rangers are not ruling out any free agent starter, according to Sullivan.

Texas expected Ross to start the year on the d.l., with a potential mid-May return date, and the initial plan has been to sort through the various depth options — A.J. Griffin, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Nick Martinez, Dillon Gee, Rule 5 pick Mike Hauschild — and go with one of them to fill in for Ross to start the year. If Cashner is going to just miss a start or two, that likely wouldn’t materially impact those plans...however, if Cashner’s situation is more serious, then the idea of bringing Lewis back yet again would seem to have more potential appeal.

As Levi Weaver noted on Twitter, the ideal scenario would be for Gonzalez, who has had a strong camp so far, to seize a rotation spot and establish himself as the serviceable major league starting pitcher the Rangers were hoping he would be at this point of his career. The former first rounder made it to the majors in 2015 and was okay, but got knocked around in three starts last year, and struggled to miss bats both in the majors and the minors.

But if Gonzalez doesn’t step up, then the Rangers need Cashner to get healthy fairly quickly. And if he doesn’t...well, Colby is just a phone call away.