Texas Rangers: Is it finally time to give up on Rougned Odor?
By Cody Smith
Has the fat lady sung on Rougned Odor’s time with the Texas Rangers?
Going into his seventh season with the team, it is looking like it’s finally time for the Texas Rangers to give up on Rougned Odor.
Over the course of his career with the Texas Rangers, Odor has shown gobs of potential at times, especially during his first three seasons in the majors, which earned him a big contract that he has fallen well short of earning since signing it.
His first three seasons, Odor got progressively better, raising his batting average and home runs over the course of each season, only to come crashing back down to earth in the next three seasons (four if you include the little bit of 2020 so far).
Since his best season in 2016 where he hit .271 with 33 home runs, he has only hit above .205 once, when he had a decent 2018 season, hitting .253.
He has essentially developed into a player that is trying to hit the ball as hard as he can, but striking out more often than not, as he has posted more strikeouts than hits every season starting with his drop-off in 2017, including leading the MLB in strikeouts in 2019.
He is now hitting just .115 for the Texas Rangers, after his 1-4 performance on Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels, one that included his first hit in a long while, and three strikeouts.
It is clear that the Texas Rangers need to put Odor on the hot seat, as if he doesn’t find a way to start limiting his strikeouts, and getting more hits, his chances could very well be dwindling.
And if (or when) the Rangers decide to replace Odor in the lineup, there are a few options on the bench to replace him with, especially once Danny Santana returns from the injured list, as Willie Calhoun, Nick Solak, and Santana all have some experience playing there in their careers, as well as one of the team’s top prospects, who had a heck of a MLB debut, in Anderson Tejeda.
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Now, it will not be a difficult decision for the Texas Rangers to send Odor to the bench, given the contractual investment they have to him over the next three seasons ($34 million thru the end of 2022, including $3 million more if/when they buy him out).
The ideal scenario for the team would be that they have the chance to make a trade, and need to send someone with a big salary away in order to make the money work for it, and the team they are trading with sees Odor’s potential, and takes on his salary, and views him as a reclamation project.
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I still think that Rougned Odor has it in him to be a good MLB player, as we have all seen over the years, but it looks like he is just one of those players that is going to be unable to fully unlock his potential, unfortunately for both him and the Texas Rangers.
- Published on 08/10/2020 at 12:01 PM
- Last updated at 08/10/2020 at 10:26 AM