Rougned Odor era ends as Texas Rangers tell him he won’t make Opening Day roster
Rougned Odor was given an opportunity to be the Texas Rangers’ everyday third baseman this spring.
But he would have to earn it. The size of his contract no longer carried the same weight.
On Monday, the day after the Rangers returned from Arizona, they told Odor he is no longer on the team.
Odor will be designated for assignment Thursday as the Rangers set their roster for Opening Day. The Rangers didn’t see the necessary improvements that would project to a productive player, and eventually want to give younger players a chance in the majors.
The first hint that severing ties with Odor was possible came Sunday as they readied to leaving spring training. It became reality less than 24 hours later.
“All these decisions are challenging,” said Jon Daniels, president of baseball operations. “Rougned was outstanding in terms of his willingness to move to third base. What it really came down to was we made a decision with a pretty clear direction moving to the future. Playing him every day was not in our plans.”
The Rangers will have to pay $27.66 million dollars owed to Odor in the final two years of his six-year, $49.5 million contract unless they are able to work out a trade. Daniels, though, said that is unlikely.
Instead, they will essentially be paying nearly $14 million each of the next two seasons to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Veteran infielder Charlie Culberson will get that spot and form a platoon with fellow veteran Brock Holt.
Eventually, though, top prospect Josh Jung is expected to become the everyday third baseman. The Texas Tech product and eighth overall pick from the 2019 MLB Draft is recovering from surgery last week on his left foot and won’t be ready to play in minor-league games until May.
Anderson Tejeda, Sherten Apostel and Davis Wendzel are other players who could get a look at third base this season.
“It opens up the possibility as the season goes on that some of our younger guys can make it up here if they’re ready,” manager Chris Woodward said. “It provides a landing for them. It would have been hard to do that otherwise.”
Odor’s performance the past four seasons has been lacking. He has only a .215 average and .279 on-base percentage since 2017, the year after his breakthrough season that included his famous right cross to the jaw of Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista.
Odor batted .167 last season and finished the spring in a 2-for-21 slump that dropped his average to .200. While the spring stats don’t carry much weight with the Rangers, Odor didn’t convince them some changes he had made at the plate would translate into a future with the team.
The Rangers didn’t want to force him into a bench role.
“It’s a tough one,” Woodward said. “Honestly, he handled it really well. It’s never easy to do. It’s the worst part of our job, giving that news to a player. But at the end of the day, the reasons why we made the move I felt like he understood. He handled it like a pro.
“It’s strictly a baseball move. It’s an organizational move going forward. Rougie is always a guy who looked at himself as an everyday player and a superstar in his mind, and he’s had moments of that. I don’t think it would be fair to him to put him in a non-everyday role.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 2:49 PM.
