Earlier on Friday, the Texas Rangers reached an agreement on a minor-league deal with free-agent first baseman James Loney.

Loney is coming off a season with the New York Mets in which he batted .265/.307/.397 -- marks worse than the 2015 effort that earned him a release from the frugal Tampa Bay Rays. As such, it's not too surprising to learn that the Rangers remain interested in a different first baseman: one Mike Napoli, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan.

Mike Napoli is still in play for the Rangers — TR Sullivan (@Sullivan_Ranger) January 21, 2017

Napoli is, of course, coming off a much better season than Loney: he hit .239/.335/.465 with 34 home runs for the Cleveland Indians. You can't even necessarily give Loney the defensive edge, since Napoli is a slick fielder at the cold corner -- a good thing for Texas's infielders, who made their throws last season to Mitch Moreland, the American League Gold Glove Award winner.

The Rangers and Napoli have been linked for a while now -- ever since the Indians moved on to Edwin Encarnacion -- so you have to figure something will get done at some point. Loney, then, is probably heading to camp with an eye on impressing another team. Such is life for a fringe player.