The Rangers have informed infielder Rougned Odor that he will not make the team’s Opening Day roster, as NBC 5’s Pat Doney first reported (Twitter link). Odor will be designated for assignment, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. Texas still owes him $27MM over the next two seasons, and because he has five-plus years of MLB service, he can still collect that salary even if he clears waivers and is released. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that the Rangers will select the contract of veteran infielder Charlie Culberson, who has made the roster.
Odor’s DFA further emphasizes the Rangers’ youth movement and closes the book on one of the more regrettable financial commitments in the franchise’s history. Nearly four years ago to the day, Odor inked a six-year, $49.5MM contract extension buying out his arbitration seasons and a handful of free-agent years. At the time, he was coming off a two-year run that saw him bat .267/.305/.487 with 49 home runs — including a 33-homer campaign in 2016.
Questionable on-base skills gave some reason for concern, but Odor was a former Top 50 overall prospect who looked the part of a slugging second baseman. Few could’ve reasonably forecast such a stark decline in such rapid fashion, however. Odor struck out at just a 19.4 percent clip from 2015-16 with the Rangers, but his whiff rate jumped to 25 percent in 2017 and has now climbed as high as 30.9 percent from 2019-20. Odor maintained much of his power, but his suddenly sky-high strikeout rates made it difficult to keep his average north of .200. His OBP, meanwhile has routinely been south of .300.
In all, since signing the extension, Odor has turned in an awful .215/.279/.418 batting line and fanned in about 27 percent of his plate appearances. His defensive ratings have tumbled in recent seasons as well, further shining a spotlight on his struggles.
With Odor now out of the picture and Elvis Andrus traded to Oakland, it looks to be a new era for the Rangers infield. They’ll task Isiah Kiner-Falefa with manning shortstop on the regular, and Odor’s departure should pave the way for Nick Solak to get everyday at-bats at second base. While Solak’s glovework draws questionable reviews itself, he’s a well-regarded offensive prospect — even if he struggled during last year’s shortened schedule.
The Rangers will have a week to trade Odor, place him on outright waivers or release him. That timeline is something of a moot point, however, as no team is going to agree to acquire the remainder of the contract either via trade or waivers. It’s perhaps possible that the Rangers will find some kind of bad contract swap, but the likeliest outcome is that Odor will simply be released and free to seek opportunities with other clubs. Should he sign elsewhere, his new club would only be required to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from the $27MM the Rangers still owe him.
I never thought the Rangers were going to release him.
LOVE this move. Congrats, Charlie, on making the roster!
He should’ve been released (or at least traded) as early as summer 2017, so this is almost 4 years too late. He has literally never been good. Even when he hit 30 HR, his OBP was trash. Plus, his stats were inflated by the old Arlington. Now the Rangers have a pitcher’s park. I still would like to see Andy Ibanez get a shot. Also here’s hoping Kyle Gibson and Ronald Guzman get DFA too. Get rid of all the dead weights. They’ve been clogging their roster for years. Sunk cost fallacy.
About freakin’ time! When a contract is a sunk cost, why compound the problem by continuing to play one of the worst players in the entire MLB regularly and hurt your team even worse in the process?
Hello Baltimore….you paying attention here?
Cardinals are like, hold my beer. We still have Matt Carpenter. (And DeJong is about to be in the same boat.)
I agree about Carpenter but not about DeJong. He’s a good defender, and his bat has been average to above-average except for last year’s 60-game season. And who would replace him?
@bernie (medicore) it’s hard to compare odor to carp. yes carp has fallen off a cliff and should be dfa’ed but you don’t dfa vets. the reason the cards get any big name fa’s is because how we treat vets at the end of there careers. i love stl and lived here most of my life and with dumb blind homerism this is the best city in the world, but if i’m gonna be honest if your a young millionaire looking for a spot stl isn’t it we lack everything a young guy is looking for in a city.
If you look at pauly D’s defensive stats n Baez’s side by side, they’re the same defensive player. So he’s top tier up the middle with 30 hr pop… Do you actually watch the games or are you a salty cards troll?
Really man dejong is better than odor acutally I don’t think it’s close
Oh we are paying attention. We will wait for the Rangers to release him and sign him to Major League minimum and let the Rangers continue to pay him.
Like to see the Mets grab him and put him at 3ed base
Why? The guy is terrible at 2nd yet you want to put him in the hot corner!??
“Texas still owes him $27MM over the next two seasons, and because he has five-plus years of MLB service, he can still collect that salary even if he clears waivers and is released.”
Wait, aren’t major leagues contracts all guaranteed? Why does it matter how many years of service he has?
arb years aren’t guaranteed
Jon bought out his arbitration years to SAVE money LOL
Agree on the guarantee. Not sure the relevance of service time in the co text used above.
Think it should have said if he clears waivers and elects free agency.
If a player elects free agency in favor of an outright assignment, they forgoe the right to termination pay. With enough service, they can still reject and assignment, elect free agency, and still receive the rest of their guaranteed salary.
That is it exactly!
If he had between three and five years of service, rejecting an outright assignment would mean forfeiting the remainder of the contract.
That’s why Odubel Herrera accepted an outright assignment with the Phillies, for instance, rather than rejecting and gauging opportunities elsewhere. Same with Rusney Castillo in Boston.
Nice to know. Thanks, Steve.
With Odor and Bautista both outta work maybe WWE will come calling for the rematch we ALL need to see?
Rather be punched in May than knocked out in October. Gonna miss E-4 as we affectionately know him here in Canada.
Its E5. 4 is 2b 5 is 3rd.
Yes, and Odor is a 2B. Thus, E-4
Given he said Canada and Bautista played third and in Toronto, I think he was referring to Bautista, not odor
You may have confused players. It’s Bautista’s Toronto battery mate, Edwin Encarnacion, who was referred to as E5 as far back as his early days in Cincy. He was absolutely atrocious at 3rd.
Odor wasn’t that bad of a 2b though, so E4 doesn’t fit him great, honestly
“Battery Mate” is a term for a pitcher and catcher combination.
Yes, I’m great fun at parties. Why do you ask?
But, Bautista was knocked out in May and October lol
LOL!!
Well at least odor will be remembered for something forever in the baseball world
I was bout to say Odor could still go box after that bout with bats! You beat me…to the punch line.
Good for Charlie Culberson! He’s a easy guy to root for.
Considering the Orioles are still holding on to Chris Davis, this is pretty shocking
That’s orders of magnitude more money
Wouldn’t the Orioles be better off paying Davis to sit home than paying him to be a bad baseball player and take up a roster spot that could be better used on a talented baseball player?
Yes
With Davis in the lineup it makes them a worse team, which equal a batter draft pick. Everybody hating on Davis but hes still helping the Orioles challenge for the number 1 spot lol
Chris Davis is not taking up a roster spot at the moment. He’s on the 60 day DL with back problems.
Well, they non-tendered Renato Nunez in the offseason and Nunez is better than Davis, so no, that’s not what they’re doing.
Baseball draft is a crapshoot. This isn’t the NBA.
Yup, let insurance pay his salary.
tedtheodorelogan –
Exactly, and what I was referring to in my comment above!
Orioles would be better off Chris Davis being a 1st base coach
Odor, Chris Davis, Pujols, Busty Poser and many other Giants, and on and on.
the folly of long term contracts…
Because the Orioles are idiots
About time
IT HAS FINALLY HAPPENED!!! FOR FAR TOO LONG WE HAVE HAD TO SUFFER THE LONG, DRAINING ODOR, BUT NOW WE ARE LIBERATED!!!
“Liberated” by still having to pay him $27M to not play for you, yes.
I don’t care. In fact, I will personally pay for his remaining contract and go into lifelong debt if it means getting this man off the team.
I agree! add Adolis, roster done, unless we can make a trade for a better RH bat, which seems unlikely w/o adding significant players or money.
I do hope that we can pull off a contract swap with this DFA. Just releasing him would be fine, but if we could find a willing partner in a trade that’d be great.
Agree. I want Kyle Gibson and Ronald Guzman off the team too. These below replacement level deadweights have been clogging our roster for years. This front office needs to understand sunk cost fallacy.
Ok, who are you?
Still wasn’t as painful as those chan ho park days. Almost, but not quite.
I think they really should give Adolis a chance. I know spring training numbers don’t mean much but he’s done everything he possibly could to warrant a roster spot.
That guy was an anchor and not in a good way. Glad to see him gone.
STILL shocking they actually did it! WoW
Well at least Jon wasted everyone’s time and give him another shot all spring instead of letting him catch on with another team
Odor is done. Ain’t no catching on with another team. He’s worthless.
If the Rangers release him any team that signs him only has to pay him the league minimum while the Rangers pay the rest. Orioles have an opening at 2B and no left handed power…
Makes a lot of sense. Maybe the kncockout punch to his ego might be the thing to help workout his issues.. Definitely worth a look for several teams @ the minimum,
Orioles were my first thought as well. Need a second baseman, need left handed power. It almost makes too much sense.
No team will give him a major league contract, much less everyday at-bat. They would rather sign Scooter Gennett than this guy. Dee Gordon, Jason Kipnis, Derek Dietrich, Greg Garcia were all recently cut in spring training. Any of them is better than Odor.
Scooter Gennett refuses to play for anything less than $5-6 million/year and a guaranteed starting gig. That’s why we haven’t seen him for 2 years
He also refused to hit in 2019
Lol Gennett is delusional
Agree. Any team is better off playing their younger players than this bum.
Rsox –
Yeah, the Orioles could bat Odor and Chris Davis in the 3-4 spots of the lineup. Talk about instilling fear into the minds of all AL East pitchers!!
We all laugh but sometimes a change of scenery does a lot of good. It could be the same here.
Rangers are easily the worst situation in baseball even worse than PIT. Awful ML team, awful farm and a GM who is proven incompetent.
coupofthecentury +1
and it was just last offseason where Jon Daniels formally announced they’d be players in the top tier of free agents, with anticipated revenue of a new stadium. Not sure how much of it was a lie to sell season tickets , or how big of miscalculation on how bad of condition his roster and farm system are and were.
I remember when they went from getting Rendon to Bryant to Donaldson to Todd Fraizer.
There was a pandemic that wiped out all that season ticket revenue remember?
@jorge78 Um no. Daniels comments came leading up to the offseason following the 2019 season. The Rangers were doing they’re best Blue Jays impression by being in on everyone and walking away with Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles
Simpson and Davis aren’t going to spend any more money than they have to. They suck.
Braves get: Rough Stinky + cash
Rangers get: Ender Inciarte
What are you smoking?
That is actually plausible, or some form of trade with Cubs, Rockies or Reds, Albeit with other players and money included for sure.
@8man. Braves already have one of MLB’s best second baseman in Albies . They have no need for the strikeout machine known as Odor.
No one is trading for him when he can be signed for the minimum.
Braves are using Inciarte as a defensive replacement for Ozuna supposedly.
Bold move but the right one. He has been garbage offensively.
If he is DFA’d that usually does not mean he is released. But, as a 5 year vet he can refuse assignment and become a FA. He is going to get paid either way so suspect he likely will refuse assignment and see if he can catch on elsewhere.
Even at league minimum the guy strikes out WAY too much. Despite that someone will probably give him a minors deal. What works against him is that he was never that good to begin with, so there’s no magic to recapture
Man, what a punch in the face.
Odor stinks.
He has bad body odor
Well, 27mm is enough for Rougned Odor to get a clean shave on that awful beard. Good lord in heaven!
Jose Bautista’s jaw most happy here.
Chances that he gets claimed… what’s less than zero?
Less than zero? Matt Carpenter’s batting average nowadays.
3 years in the making.
I don’t see him play much. Ranger fans, what happened to him?
Too in love with swinging for the fences. Definitely never questioned his effort, but sometimes you have to be smart enough to know when to adjust and adapt.
He had one good year, then was given huge contract. Always has had decent HR power for 2nd baseman. Don’t really know what happened to him. I suspect, like a lot of other players, once they have played a couple of seasons, pitchers learned his weak spots in the strike zone, and just kept pounding those spots.
He was fraud even during that “one good year.” His OBP has always been trash. He has always been a streaky all-or-nothing hitter. Plus, his stats were inflated by the Rangers’ old bandbox stadium. They moved to a pitcher’s park last year.
makes sense as an O’s pickup right? Just dropped Yolmer and makes sense to play him over Valaika and Urias
They would rather sign Dee Gordon, Jason Kipnis, Derek Dietrich, or Scooter Gennett than this guy, so no. He’ll have to settle for a minor league deal wherever he lands and will never be an everyday player again.
No….he makes sense for no major league team. Maybe your local bar-league softball team. Maybe.
You know who should sign Odor? Prime Pirates target. You know he can handle second (not well). Get him some innings at third when Hayes sits, play him in the outfield. He gets the minimum two years in a row and this is a perfect Harrison replica possibly. If it doesn’t work out, no harm done. If it does work out, good trade candidate.
Not the worst idea out there, if you’re gonna finish last pinch those pennies.
He’s worse than Addison Russell and toxic in the locker room. so no.
.728 OPS for a guy who has hit 30+ homers 3 out of the 7 years in the league. This dude managed to hit 30 homers and still put up a .649 OPS in the same season in 2017, that takes a lot of terrible AB’s mixed in with those 30 homers.
He had no business getting that many at-bats to even get to 30 HR. The Rangers force-fed him playing time to justify his awful contract.
The definition of “two true outcome player”.
Hahahahahah suck it Odor!!!!!
I hope Odor finds success down the road, but as a Rangers fan….thank goodness!!!
He’s certainly a stinky player at this point.
Every ss and 2b is safer now. Dude was a master of the dirty slide. Really surprised he never seriously hurt anybody.
Good right hook
If he continued hitting bombs he wouldnt have been all that bad, 30 HR on an up the middle position isnt easy to come by
He hit 10 bombs last year, putting him roughly at a 30 HR pace. But all the other numbers cratered even further than before.
He’s made about $35 mil so far over his career. He is due another $27 mil so that’s $62 mil he has received from the Rangers….
Answer honestly, would you rather the Rangers have that $62 mil again to invest if it meant Odor never cracked Bautista?
If I’m answering honestly I think that punch was clearly worth $62 mil
Chris Davis for Roghned Odor trade sounds so right
Rob66 –
Sounds absolutely amazing for Baltimore! They’d owe roughly $40 million less and would have a similarly horrible player
It’s not my money so I’ll take the punch!
…I did not see that coming
the reds maybe take a chance ?
That would surely help them wrap up the “worst defensive team in MLB history” title
With LeClerc hurt, they need Charlie out of the pen.
Dominant last season.
Probably their closer now.
They should have attached some prospects to Odor a year ago and called it good. Or made Odor part of any Lance Lynn deal. There was a way to save money and trade this guy.
But the Rangers are going to offer 100% full attendance this season so perhaps starting their youth movement and releasing Odor now makes sense.
Assuming another team takes him, will Texas still be on the hook for his salary?
If released The new team would only be responsible for the prorated league minimum and Texas responsible for the rest. If traded that would depend on what is agreed upon in the deal. If claimed off waivers the new team would be responsible for the entirety of the contract. We haven’t seen a team claim a contract this bad since the White Sox claimed Alex Rios from the Blue Jays in 2009
I know Odor is on the down side of his career but this would be a great pickup for the Orioles. Texas is stuck paying him so they could get him really cheap.
There is only one players worse in the AL that Odor, and that’s Chris Davis. Odor has next to zero value as a player. Not only is he bad, but his IQ is crazy low. He’s alluded numerous times to the fact that he’s not smart enough to pick up all the analytics and trends in baseball. As part of his contract, the Rangers gave him a horse (being serious). It’s time he rides off into the sunset.
Everyone talks about players getting used in their early years. it’s a system and this is the reason why players should be happy with fair deals. Like him or not, he locked in that contract and good for him.
Those early career extensions are always a risk . When the players perform its awesome, but unfortunately not all do as expected.
He stinks
A shame it didn’t work out for Odor…..
Is it okay to jump up and down with joy? This is fantastic news that will make most Rangers fans ecstatic.
Haven’t been this excited about the Rangers since they last made the playoffs. Huge and awesome news!
Can he still keep his horses because I remember that’s what the Rangers gave him in the contract they signed some years back. It was his primary reason to sign with the team back then.
Beautiful. Finally getting this man out of our ballclub. Long overdue.
Somewhere, Jose Bautista is snickering.
Yay for Charlie!
Odor is talented. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he bounces back for another team. He needs a change of scenery and a hitting coach that he clicks with….
So you saying Odor just needs to freshen up a bit
Wether your indifferent, dislike him, or truly despise him (no option to like him listed) he was to say the least a good villain
And baseball can use more villains
You have to be a good player to be a good villain. Odor would not fit the bill there.
I’m ready for the Rangers to be good again.
That was a hard Odor to get rid of.
Where will Rougned Odor end up? I think CIN or any number of teams will try him out for the league minimum.
Odor is stinky