Rangers Notes: Victorino, Beltre, Daniels

Here’s the latest from the Rangers’ camp…

• The Rangers have considered signing Shane Victorino, but only on a minor league deal, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo reports (Twitter link).  Texas is known to be looking for veteran outfield help, with such names as Alejandro De Aza, David Murphy, Will Venable and (as ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported earlier today) Drew Stubbs also receiving some consideration.  It’s been rather a quiet offseason for Victorino, who is returning to switch-hitting and looking for a one-year contract to rebuild his value after two injury-plagued seasons.  Despite Victorino’s impressive career track record, a minor league contract could be his best option at this late juncture in the offseason; from the Rangers’ perspective, they only seem willing to address their outfield depth need in the form of minor league deals anyway.
• Adrian Beltre told reporters (including MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan) that he thought about undergoing surgery to repair the torn ligament in his left thumb last July.  Beltre suffered the injury in May and spent most of June on the DL, though he was still in a great deal of pain even after returning.  The veteran third baseman was able to tough it out the rest of the season, however, and only underwent surgery after Texas was out of the playoffs.  As he prepares to enter his 19th MLB season, Beltre said he’s certainly aware of his age but overall, “my body feels pretty good….on the field, I don’t think I have any limitations.“
• Beltre and GM Jon Daniels both confirmed that there’s mutual interest in working out a contract extension to keep Beltre in Texas beyond the 2016 season.  Despite Beltre’s age, Daniels called him “a unique guy” and said “you want to be cognizant of age — older players have more risk — but there are some guys ahead of the curve and he has proven to be one of those guys in more ways than one. Age is a factor, but it’s less of a factor than other guys.”
• In other Rangers news from the last two days, the team signed Jeremy Guthrie to a minor league deal and learned that Tanner Scheppers will miss at least five months due to surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee.