No Odor on Texas Rangers in ’21; team moving on from longtime 2B

Rougned Odor, the Texas Rangers’ starting second baseman for the past seven seasons, has been informed that he will not be on the opening day roster after switching to third base this spring, according to the team.

According to Jon Daniels, the Rangers’ president of baseball operations, Odor does not have an everyday role. The 27-year-old infielder has two seasons and $24.6 million remaining on his six-year deal, as well as a $3 million buyout for a $13.5 million team option in 2023.

“I think what it came down to was that we made a decision, obviously a pretty clear direction looking forward.” And playing him every day wasn’t in the cards for us this year,” Daniels explained. “As we look ahead, we believe we will have some younger players coming up. And we didn’t believe it was in his or our best interests to push the issue to the sidelines.”

The Rangers did not immediately designate Odor for assignment, instead of considering a trade before having to officially submit its roster before Thursday’s season opener. Daniels stated that he did not expect to find a suitable trade partner and that the team did not inquire about Odor’s desire to play in the minor leagues.

Daniels stated that veteran infielders Brock Holt, who grew up a Rangers fan, and Charlie Culberson, who arrived at camp as non-roster invitees, would both make the team. The starting second baseman will be Nick Solak.

During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Odor led Texas with 30 RBIs in 38 games and tied Joey Gallo with a team-high 10 home runs. However, Odor hit only 167 in September, with seven of his 11 hits being home runs, while striking out 47 times in 138 at-bats. He batted.205 over the course of the 2019 season. Since his debut with the Rangers in 2014, he has hit.237 with 146 home runs and 458 RBIs in 858 games.

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