The Yankees have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran infielder Rougned Odor, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The BHSC client can opt out of the contract on July 1 if he hasn’t been added to the roster by that point. Odor had signed a deal with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball back in January, but the league announced just a couple days ago that he’d been released.
It’s the second Yankees stint for Odor. The now-30-year-old infielder spent the 2021 season in the Bronx and batted .202/.286/.379 with 15 homers in 361 trips to the plate. He’s suited up for the Orioles and Padres since that initial run with the Yankees. Presumably, he’ll head to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and hope to play his way into a return to the big league level.
While Odor has a trio of 30-homer seasons under his belt, his offense has tailed off considerably since his run with the Rangers early in his career. The former top prospect hit .238/.295/.445 (95 wRC+) from 2015-19, offsetting much of his above-average power with a free-swinging approach that led to frequently anemic on-base percentages. It was still decent production on the whole, however, and Odor paired that all-or-nothing approach with solid glovework and baserunning skills.
Since the 2020 season, things have taken a swift downturn. Odor has tallied 1138 plate appearances in that time, hitting just .199/.274/.371. He’s begun to walk a bit more and slightly improved his strikeout rate from the 30% at which it sat in 2019. But Odor’s 7.3% walk rate and 25.7% strikeout rate since 2020 are still worse than average, and his baserunning and defense have begun to decline as well. He still clearly has power against righties, but that comes with low average and OBP marks. His numbers against lefties in this stretch (.187/.273/.337) render him nearly unplayable against same-handed opponents.
The Yankees’ infield is banged up at the moment, however, and it seems they’ll be without DJ LeMahieu for longer than expected after he was eventually diagnosed with a fracture in his foot. Back in early March, Oswald Peraza was shut down entirely for six to eight weeks due to a shoulder strain. Even if he’s able to resume baseball activity at the end of that 6-8 week shutdown, he’ll then need to slowly build back up and head out on a minor league rehab stint. We’re not even four weeks from that original shutdown; his return is still quite a ways off.
That pair of infield injuries surely contributed to the Yankees’ late acquisition of utilityman Jon Berti from the Marlins — a trade that occurred on the eve of Opening Day. That’s helped soften the blow, but another injury would leave the Yankees relatively thin on infield options. Well-traveled utility infielder Josh VanMeter is in Triple-A at the moment, as are former prospects like Jordan Groshans, Kevin Smith and Jeter Downs. None are on the 40-man roster, however, and none have had any big league success to this point. Odor will give the Yanks some additional depth that has more big league experience and some success — even if it’s been several years since his last productive MLB campaign.
There is a new Odor in New York…
No one will notice since the other MLB team in NYC stinks so bad…
That’s just Splinter. He is a mutated rat after all.
Haha Master Splinter must’ve felt that earthquake that just happened apparently
Apparently they did in Philly too. I just talked to someone from there an hour ago.
Just don’t get socked in the face by a dork like Joey Bart
Time to shave that beard again
Good for him. He was released by SD. His stats weren’t great, but I thought it was a little premature. I think keeping him over Matt Carpenter made better baseball sense, but Carpenter had a difficult two year contract for some reason.
I wonder why he was released by Japan? I can see him not getting with the program with their stringent rules.
He was definitely more valuable than Carpenter in SD. Agreed.
Yankees like these guys that are bad a$$’$ like Odor. Stroman. Verdugo. To name a few I wonder what’s goin on. Also, is Cole to pitch ever 60 days? That’s the deal with That.
The difference is that Odor sucks!!
Really nice of Brian Cashman to bring back Jose Bautista’s father to the organization
RE CMH
Enough
Muted (The type of fan, and likely individual, I find least interesting)
Filihok
It’s not a airport and announcing you muted someone is not tough or a gotcha moment. It’s pathetic
DP
Muted (dumb airport comment. Also, that you think noting that I’ve muted someone is more pathetic than the whole “father” thing strongly suggests that you are also not the type of person I have any interest in interacting with).
It’s hard to believe filihok has anyone left to converse with…he has to have muted 90% of us by now.
Filihok is softer than Afghan silk lmao
It’s like, who acts that way on social media anymore? “MUTED” Filihok has to be a shameless troll who acts and responds like a juvenile on purpose, just for the effect. OR he is the 60 year old virgin who just discovered the internet in 2023.
Rougned? His parents wanted to make his life tough.
@APBA
Dick Pole’s parents on line 1.
Odor… PUNCH!
Odor doesn’t have the punching power of Cleveland’s Ramirez 🙂
Then again maybe Jackie Anderson has a glass jaw
It’s a Smash Bros reference.
That was one heck of a haymaker by Odor on Bautista, though!
I don’t see an opening on the roster even as a bench player, although LeMahieu and Peraza are both out, so he could be an injury away.
Makes me wonder if it’s just a warm body while Peraza is out or are they concerned about DJ.
Huh?
Thought they would have claimed Jose Rodriguez from the White Sox, but the other person who would be a quick solution for the Yankees would be Jake Lamb from the Pirates.
I thought that the ship sailed on Odor. Apparently the ship is back in port.
I can’t believe he’s still just 30. Seems like he’s been bouncing around the league for like 6 or 7 years.
Excellent. He’s an established major league infielder. Welcome to your 30’s Roughned!
Released from Japan already? They must have realized Odor stinks…
Just when he grew his beard back to perfect. Doh!
Crazy that Odor is only 30. He got exceptionally lucky with that premature contract extension- otherwise he’d be scuffling by financially (by major league terms) on 1 year/$1M-$4M deals at best and maybe have banked less than half of what he got paid on that contract- IF he got major league contracts and not a series of minor league deals with pro rated major league split salaries.
Anyway- pretty crazy he’s both still around and still only 30.
I highly doubt this leads to anything major… literally or figuratively… I’d be shocked to see him called up and see him produce or be plugged into the line up on a regular basis.
But hey- if they can get him in as a late inning substitute player type and he somehow only hits home runs and does nothing else for us for like 1-2 innings a few times a week and even runs into some tie breaking, go ahead or walk off blasts- awesome!
He’s now the Ryan Weber of hitting. Disposal MLB roster depth
Tony Kemp will be available April 13th.
I guess the price was right
Completely harmless as it’s a minor league deal but… I don’t want to see a world in which he’s taking big league Ab’s for the team.
With DJ out, the Yankees are thin in the infield. Even one injury is a problem, which would require them to add someone to the 40 man roster. You only want to add a player to the 40 man if they fulfill one of two criteria: either they are an entirely disposable player that you can DFA without batting an eye; or they are a player who is good enough that you want to keep them on the 4o man indefinitely. Since they have Perazza on the 60 day IL, if they do add an infielder, unless they are better than Peraza they are going to have to DFA them to provide room for Peraza. That’s why you add a disposable player like Odor. Better to add someone like that than someone like Vivas if you expect to have to DFA them. Now, if Vivas makes a strong case for promotion, that would be a different story.
As the Yankees injured list grows, it starts to feel more and more like the last few years. And now, Odor is back.
Decent paper company in Scranton if this Yankees bid doesn’t work out.
What…was Josh Donaldson not answering his phone? I mean, they both suck!
This guy made a huge fool out of himself in Japan as he REFUSED to be sent down to the Yomiuri Giants minor camp and asked to be released. Now he signs with ANOTHER minor team, it’s no different than getting the same job that you quit on the first day (or not even the first day). “What a joke” is understandably the impression that fans in Japan hold against him.
Odor should have followed Jackie Bradley Jr. To the Long Island Ducks.