Texas Rangers: What To Expect From Rougned Odor In 2018

2017 just was not the season Rougned Odor was hoping for. The Texas Rangers award him with a huge contract extension and consequently, Odor falls into a slump. The last thing a ball club needs when a promising young player slumps after receiving his hard-earned paycheck.

Odor played all 162 games last season, finishing with 124 hits, 30 home runs, and a batting average of .204.Even worse, Odor’s strike rate of 24.9 for last season is a career-high Obviously, the Texas Rangers expected so much more from Odor. Of course, it wasn’t just Odor who struggled as the Rangers’ bats finished last season fourth in the league in strikeouts per game with 9.2. In Odor’s case, critics considered him the worst offensive player in the majors last year.

The 23-year-old is still learning and he’s not in his prime yet. It’s unknown how far he is from being in his prime but one thing’s for sure and that is him getting closer and closer to it. His slump of a season in 2017 is only part of the learning process. The next lesson is showing great improvement in 2018.

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So that’s the biggest expectation we have for Odor in 2018; play better baseball and to avoid any distractions at all costs. Stay healthy, as well.

Odor’s first step to having a much-improved 2018 is to arrive at Spring Training in good shape and at 100 percent. Most importantly, he needs to arrive well-focused. He needs as much concentration as possible in order to improve his caliber.

Odor will be 24 when the Rangers begin Spring Training. He’s got an entire career ahead of him. He needs to take things one step at a time. Rushing himself is the quickest way his career can end up derailing.

Obviously, his hitting skills are the biggest concern for him at the moment. His first step to improving is to regain his confidence and convince himself he can hit balls deep into the field and making an impact. No doubt, he’s working on it right now.