Texas Rangers: Who Starts At Second: Odor or Profar?

The struggles of Rougned Odor are clear, but has he lost his job at second base? The Rangers must keep Jurickson Profar on the roster, but will be actually earn the starting job?

The Texas Rangers saw an enormous decline from Rougned Odor in 2017. The only area Odor improved in was, walks (32), stolen bases (15), and games played with 162. Everything else seemingly declined from his 2016 campaign.

While Odor did struggle, he still managed to hit 30 home runs and 75 RBIs, but finished with a .397 slugging percentage. The 23-year-old doesn’t walk much and is basically an all-or-nothing power hitter.

Sadly, he’s signed into a contract through the 2022 season with a team option for 2023. He’s going to be on the Rangers roster, but that doesn’t guarantee he’ll be the starter. The Rangers do have Jurickson Profar on the MLB roster this year.

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After years of juggling Profar back and forth from the majors to minors, he’s finally out of options. The Rangers must keep Profar on the 25-man roster or risk him going through waivers if optioned to the minor leagues.

The 24-year-old is a career .229 hitter with 12 home runs and 53 RBIs in 206 games with the Rangers. Those stats are combined throughout parts of four seasons that began in 2012 and ran through 2017.

It’s been a wild ride for Profar, but is he ready to take the next step? Last season, Profar hit .287 with seven home runs and 45 RBIs in 87 games in Triple-A Round Rock. Profar walked 43 times with just 33 strikeouts last season.

The two players are different in almost every aspect, but only one can start. Profar has the potential to be a better all-around player, but hasn’t done enough at the MLB level. It’s unlikely the Rangers hand the starting job to Profar out of Spring Training.

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The most likely scenario here is, Odor continues to struggle and regress from his 2016 campaign. The Rangers slowly work Profar into the lineup, and let him play a few times a week at second. Highly improbable Profar takes over full-time at second with Odor still healthy and on the roster.