Rougned Odor is off the injured list. So is Elvis Andrus. They now reside on the sit-on-the-bench list.

It seems the Rangers are finally committed to moving on, or at least seeing what’s out there behind the struggling middle infield duo.

It’s about time. And you can’t say they weren’t given time. Rangers management was so much more patient than Rangers fans, which is understandable considering the amount of money they have invested in both players. But they have been sunk costs for too long.

Since Elvis’s peak years of 2016 and 2017, he has a combined OPS+ of 75, meaning he is 25 percent worse than league average. His on-base-percentage in that time is .305. Nothing says role player quite like three years of a .305 OBP. As bad as his production was in 2018 and ’19, it dropped in half this year.

But Elvis Andrus is Mike Trout compared to Rougned Odor. He, too, had two peak offensive years, 2015 and 2016. Since then, his production has just been simply been offensive. He, too has an OPS+ well below average, at 76, slightly higher than Andrus’s because he used to be able to hit home runs. But that was all he could do. His four year slash line is as ugly as a slasher movie: .216 AVG/.281 OBP/.693 OPS. Those are numbers that don’t get you the bench, they get you released.

Yet the Rangers ran them out, long after their expiration dates had expired, game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game after game.

Mainly it was because they had nobody else to take their place. Now they do. And now they are being given a chance.

It’s a changing of the guard in Texas Rangers land. You never know how the new guard will perform but it’s hard to believe anyone could be as bad as Andrus and Odor have been for as long as they were.

It’s like that first day in spring when you open the windows and let fresh air blow out the linger of winter. You still have the same house but it seems so much more refreshing.

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TODAY’S GAME:

Jordan Lyle (1-3, 8.59) vs. Justin Dunn (2-1, 4.33)

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