MARCH 30, 10:18am: Texas will announce the deal today, per Rangers executive VP of communication John Blake (via Twitter). He also confirmed the six-year term, beginning in 2017, and presence of a single club option.
Jon Heyman of Fan Rag has the full breakdown: Odor receives a $2MM signing bonus, with salaries of $1MM, $3MM, $7.5MM, and $9MM before the would-be free-agent years, which are valued at $12MM apiece.
8:15am: The deal is official, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. The option year is valued at $13.5MM, with a $3MM buyout.
MARCH 25: The Rangers are “increasingly optimistic” of finalizing a contract extension with second baseman Rougned Odor before Spring Training is over, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. The deal “may only be lacking formalities” at this point. Grant reports the deal is six years in length, while FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports that Odor will earn $49.5MM and the contract also contains a club option year. Odor is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
The two sides have discussed a long-term deal at various points over the last year, and Odor may have helped his case delivering a 33-homer season in 2016, albeit with a unimpressive on-base percentage (Odor hit .271/.296/.502 over 632 PA). Odor’s defense at second base has also drawn consistently below-average grades. While some deficiencies exist, however, Odor did generate 4.4 fWAR over the last two seasons and he just celebrated his 23rd birthday last month.
Odor is already slated to earn $563, 180 this season in his final year as a pre-arbitration player. Assuming the extension overwrites that salary, then the six-year agreement will cover 2017, Odor’s three arbitration-eligible seasons and his first two free agent years. Should Texas exercise that club option for 2023, that will extend the Rangers’ control through Odor’s third free agent year, though he’d still be just 30 years old when he’d be eligible for the open market.
The deal is only slightly less expensive than the six-year, $52.5MM extension Jason Kipnis signed with the Indians prior to the 2014 season, which was a deal often used as a comparable during Odor’s extension talks (and also negotiated by the Beverly Hills Sports Council). Kipnis signed his deal entering his age-27 season but also had a more solidly established track record as a star player, so those two factors could have weighed out to deliver Odor roughly the same amount of money.
Rangers GM Jon Daniels has long sought to lock up star players (both young and old) throughout his tenure in the Texas front office, with Odor joining the likes of Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler, Martin Perez, and Derek Holland as notable Rangers who inked long-term deals with the team. The Rangers could face a somewhat more difficult challenge in reaching extensions with two veteran stars (Yu Darvish and Jonathan Lucroy) before the two hit free agency next winter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I guess this means Profar’s future with Rangers isn’t gonna be a long one.
Not necessarily. It sounds like they are planning on giving Profar regular playing time as a super utility player this season
I do like Odor, but it’s hard not to worry about that really awful K:BB ratio he has.
Good ball player, but his OBP% needs work.
yes his OBP stinks.
I saw what you did there
Incredible how lucky the Rangers are to have a 22 year old with MLB success, but posters in here chose to ignore all that and focus on the faults of said 22 YEAR OLD.
Odor should be in AA right now, not poppin 30+ bombs in the bigs, who cares about his perceived flaws? If he repeats his 2016 he’s a great regular – but seeing how young he is, he probably eventually will figure out things – calm down with this “dont like his OBP” crybaby crap!
Thank you! He’s still developing.
All he said was “needs work”. Stop being so damn sensitive.
Seriously… It’s ok to accept there are currently some holes in his game.
Great post, rather have him with flaws than never have had him it all
Everyone seems to want the perfect player.
It’s easy to overlook Odor’s age in a world which has seen the following very young players debut as MVP candidates in the last five seasons – Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Nolan Arenado and Corey Seager. I think it’s easy to envision all of those players having easy Hall of Fame careers. Guys like Odor are easy to overlook in comparison.
Odor was 22 last season. Since 2012 (five years), 21 players have gotten 500+ PA as a 22-year-old.
Here they are:
9+ WAR: Bryce Harper
7-9: Mike Trout, Corey Seager
5.5-7: Manny Machado, Jason Heyward, Francisco Lindor, Giancarlo Stanton
4-5.5: Mookie Betts, Christian Yelich, Xander Bogaerts
3-4: Addison Russell, Starlin Castro
2-3: Nolan Arenado, Brett Lawrie, Rougned Odor
1-2: Ruben Tejada, Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve
Less than 1: Nick Castellanos, Jesus Montero, Eric Hosmer
He was an average player in his age-22 season, but there’s a mixed history with recent 1-3 WAR players at that age. Brett Lawrie and Ruben Tejada floundered, while Arenado, Freeman and Altuve took steps forward. If Odor can improve his walk rate and defense, he can take the next step, but right now, he’s not one of the 10 best second basemen in the league. Second base is incredibly deep right now, and I’d take Kinsler, Pedroia, Kipnis, Dozier, Cano, Altuve, Forsythe, LeMahieu, Panik, Segura (though he’ll likely man short), Villar (he might man short a decent amount), Zobrist/Baez, Walker, Murphy before him. He’s, to me, more like Jonathan Schoop, Devon Travis, Dee Gordon and Cesar Hernandez in that he has something to prove this season.
I agre! I know at 22 I thought I was made of Teflon! He will figure it out on being more patient at the plate!
Rangers have great young core of Odor, Mazara, Profar, and Gallo who are all under 23. Yes, they need a couple more years of seasoning but they will turn into a great dish.
I wouldn’t say that’s great. They have a chance to be great but all four of them have huge question marks. I especially wouldn’t expect to much out of Gallo unless you’re ok with a guy somewhere in between Chris carter and Chris Davis.
Gallo is probably closer to Chris Davis than Chris Carter, IMO. I think the power and strikeouts will both be huge, but I think he’ll be a better hitter for AVG/OBP than Carter and a better defensive player.
Wow, are you ok?? Like seriously, did you break any keys typing that angrily?? Go get a tissue, wipe your tears, and get over it. A .296 OBP% is inexcusable, no matter your age. Did Griffey have a .296 OBP% at that age? No. Did Harper have a .296 OBP% at that age? No. Did Trout have a .296 OBP% at that age? No. Should I continue? So stop making excuses
good lord…are you really upset because he hasnt measured up to 2 of the best players in the game today, AND one of the greatest of all time???
and yes, trout posted a .281OBP in his first go around in the league
reggie jackson was only about 10 points higher in his first 675 at bats
duke snyder OBP for his first 2 years was .290
you are the type to get made over winning a 50 million dollar lottery, because it was 125 million the week before…just cant make some people happy
Counterpoint: The man whose handle is named after a wildcard team that got bounced in the first round of the playoffs has middling standards at best :)
honestly, I dont really post on here a whole lot, and my login is my email address so I did even realize what my handle was
I’m just giving you a hard time, nor worries!
Cano, Altuve, etc were 22 as a rookies. Odor has over performed in the show for his age and I’m positive his OBP will increase (it can’t get much lower). Future 3 hole hitter in a few seasons.
Optimism is good, but do remember that this is now a guy with almost 1500 MLB PA as a 4% walk rate player. He only walked over 6.3% of the time at one MiLB stop, his 124-PA pitstop at AAA in 2015. He’s never been a big walk guy. If he’s only going to his .270~, a 3% walk rate is just not going to cut it if he wants to move past being average. Right now, he’s pretty much average.
I do think the OBP will go up next year, even if the AVG drops a bit, since 3% ifs low even for what he showed in 2014-2015.
I hoping more of an Adam Dunn kind of guy. Yes the strikeouts are a huge pain in the @$&, but I would take 30-40 bombs a season.
Dunn also displayed top tier walk ability throughout his career.
Adam Dunn debuted with a walk rate over 13% and was at nearly 19% by his second season. That’s what kept him afloat. He had a walk rate of at least 11.9% every single season as his career, whereas, three years in, Odor has never topped 5%.
That’s right, and they lost another young player (Odubel Herrera) with great potential.
All these young players getting locked up for cheap, team friendly deals and the Red Sox are just sitting there with their thumbs in their asses.
3rd base will open up next season he’ll get plenty of playing time. Beltre for sure wants 90% at 3rd he can still pick it at the hot corner. He’s nearly 40 My guess 2017 is his last. At least as a position player. Not sure when his contract ends.
I’ll believe this when a 6 year old announces it on the radio.
Odor is a hypocritical rat
You’re a literal one.
With Lucroy and Darvish in their final years exactly why was this a priority?
Because he’s cheaper and younger
And the Blue Jays are quaking in their boots.
They’re quaking alright. Pretty confident all the Rangers are shaking though knowing they have to play the jays twice, since they’ve been thoroughly embarrassed in the first round in each of the past two years by them.
Yesh they’re real scared of bouncing the Rangers in the playoffs again
Good deal for both Rangers and Odor.
he also got 2 quarter horses as part of deal