Rougned Odor hasn’t earned playing time. Here’s why Texas Rangers keep playing him
When an MLB player is struggling, it is often said that he is just inconsistent.
The word was used a few times Monday while discussing the ongoing woes of Rougned Odor, the Texas Rangers’ second baseman.
A counterpoint was made that Odor isn’t inconsistent at all.
He is struggling again for the fourth consecutive season. Through all the purported changes and adherence to yet another new approach, the results on the field have been wildly consistent.
Maybe he’s been consistently inconsistent.
Odor entered Tuesday batting .150 after snapping an 0-for-20 stretch. His four errors are the most on the team and sixth-most in the American League.
Yet, Odor was in the original lineup Tuesday for the sixth consecutive game even though the Rangers know he hasn’t earned everyday playing time. He was a late scratch, though, because of an eye infection.
The lucrative contract extension Odor signed in 2017 isn’t the reason why he plays. He plays because the Rangers don’t have another option at second base that they feel is any better and because he can’t get any better if he doesn’t play.
No anonymous source said that. General manager Jon Daniels did during a candid Zoom call Monday with reporters that lasted more than 30 minutes.
When it seems like something has to give, nothing lasting has, and it appears nothing will.
“The contract at this point is not really relevant to whether he’s playing,” Daniels said. “I think it’s more the idea that, quite frankly, there isn’t an alternative that really is ready that is more likely to produce than to use this opportunity to get Roogie performing at a higher level.
“From a straight talent standpoint and what he’s capable of, he gives us the best option.”
Daniels followed that by saying that’s on him, that he needs to do a better job of giving the coaching staff more options to choose. It was Daniels who said last September that Odor wasn’t a guaranteed starter for 2020 and that the only assurance the six-year, $49.5 million contract provided was that Odor would be on the team.
Even though Nick Solak came up through the minors as a second baseman, the issue isn’t Solak vs. Odor.
Moving Solak to second base would create a void in the outfield that can’t be adequately filled. That might change once Shin-Soo Choo (oblique) and Willie Calhoun (hamstring) return to the lineup.
Rookie infielder Anderson Tejeda, who impressed earlier this month in his MLB debut, isn’t developed enough to become an everyday MLB player. Neither is Justin Foscue, the 2020 first-round pick (14th overall) who last week was added to the alternate player camp.
Derek Dietrich has cooled considerably since his first two games with the Rangers Aug. 12 and Aug. 14, and he’s a left-handed hitter just as Odor is.
But that doesn’t mean Odor will continue playing every day.
“I think there’s value in him getting days off,” Daniels said. “He’s obviously not performing at a level where he needs to be in there every single day.”
Here comes the but.
“But at the same time he can’t get better if he’s not playing,” Daniels said. “He provides us with a more talented option than the alternative at this point.”
At some point, though, the Rangers might give up on Odor.
Manager Chris Woodward, while not speaking specifically on Odor, said there comes a time when a player exhausts all his chances and when an organization becomes exhausted by that player.
Not only does there cease to be any improvement, but the elements required for improvement also disappear. One of those elements is hunger, which is hard to coach.
“I think the game kind of tells you,” Woodward said. “Listen, I’m an optimistic guy, but I do get frustrated sometimes when I don’t see growth, when I don’t see learning and I don’t see guys improve. And that doesn’t mean they’re going to have better numbers. That doesn’t mean that their statistics are going to go through the roof.
“It’s on the players, honestly. Everything is there for them to improve, whether that’s physically, mentally, psychologically. We have everything we can do to make guys better. So in a lot of ways when I see that plateau, that’s when you’ve got to dig your heels in as a player.”
Maybe that’s what Odor is doing. Maybe improvement is coming.
But he’s been so consistent, maybe consistently inconsistent, the past four years that it’s difficult to expect anything different.
