40-man: Rougned Odor.


A continuing look at the Rangers 40-man roster.

ROUGNED ODOR 
Age: 26
Left-Handed Hitting Second Baseman

What can one say about Rougned Odor that hasn’t already been said? 

He would not have had a job on any major league team that believes in results and accountability.

He has been one of the major league’s worst hitters for four seasons in a row. He has displayed the very unusual pattern of only showing up in July and the first two weeks of September, when he blisters the ball. The other twenty weeks of the season, he disappears.

As bad as Odor is, he has led the Rangers in RBIs in each of the past two seasons. Which will tell you how desperate this team is for offense. 

What did Odor get for being terrible? The opportunity to be run out there game after game after game. Inexplicably. 

Of course, they wanted him to succeed. They want to avoid his contract being a sunk cost. But it is. And all the wishing in the world can’t prevent him from being a strikeout machine who struggles to get on base and really doesn’t contribute anything offensively except for an occasional home run.

He still has three more years on his contract. The past two Rangers managers have publicly threatened to bench him but have, seeminly, been over-ridden by the Rangers front office.

Early in the off-season, when the Rangers announced Elvis Andrus was no longer their starting shortstop, they also hinted that Odor’s job is now in danger as well. The old “Boy Who Cried Wolf” fable comes to mind. 

But it seems like ownership is finally sick of losing and might be trotting out a modicum of accountability. It would be nice if that extends to the field, in particularly the man who has been stationed at second base for six years in Texas, contributing very little.

Even after two very promising seasons to start his career, even after three seasons of 30 or more home runs, his career OPS+ is still woefully below average.

Odor is aptly named, it seams.