Texas Rangers second baseman hitting well in winter ball

The Texas Rangers have several players currently playing in the Dominican Winter Leagues right now.  Their second baseman Odubel Herrera, was was with the Frisco Rough Riders last season is doing very well with the Liga Venezuela Baseball Club.  For a lot of the season he has been leading the league in batting average and is currently second with a batting average of .397/.431.

Over 34 games/116 at-bats he has 11 doubles, 2 triples, 3 home runs and 12 RBI.  Over his last 10 games he has a batting line of .421/.450/.684/1.134 with 5 doubles and 4 RBI.  This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, while with the Frisco Rough Riders he batted .315/.383/.388/.771 with 19 doubles, 4 triples, 2 home runs and 48 RBI over 96 games/368 at-bats. The Texas Rangers recently made several moves to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule-5 draft in December, but Odubel Herrera was not one of them.  That means teams will be able to draft him during the Rule-5 during the Winter Meetings in San Diego.  Teams looking for an easy upgrade at second-base could choose to pick up Odubel Herrera, but he is still young at 22 years old and is still working on refining his skills.  But, that doesn’t mean he won’t be able to make the jump from the double-A ball to the majors if he’s asked to.

Rule-5 Draft caveats If a players is chosen in the Rule-5 draft that players must be kept on the team’s 25-man major league roster for the entire season.  That team cannot option or designate him to the minors, but that team can put him on waivers.  If the player passes though waivers, then he must be offered back to the team he was drafted from.  Once the players is on the drafted team for an entire he the team can do what ever they wish.  Also, the draftee must active on the 25-man roster for 90 days to avoid teams from abusing the system, such as putting a player on the disable list.

As far as the Rangers are concerned, hopefully they won’t lose Odubel Herrera in the draft.  Right now the Texas Rangers are stacked in the middle-infield and it’s doubtful he’ll play anytime soon for them, but he would be something they could trade to acquire pitching or to fill other needs.