Texas Rangers: Rougned Odor May Be Heating Up At The Plate

Texas Rangers starting second baseman, Rougned Odor, got off to a poor start this season but seems to be heating up as of late.

The Texas Rangers as a team got off to a slow start this season offensively. Among the worst on the team was Rougned Odor who seemed to be following up a historically bad 2017 season with and even worse 2018. Last season Odor hit a poor .204 with a .252 on-base percentage. Early this year, he was hitting worse consistently with an average below .200 for much of the time that he was healthy.

After missing a significant amount of time to injury, Odor returned to the starting lineup with his role very much in question. However, much to the fans and Rangers surprise, he seems to be heating up at the plate. Odor, just 24, has seen his average climb over the past five games including three multi-hit games in that span. Rougie is now seven for his last seventeen which equates to a .412 average. Of those hits, two were for extra bases. Perhaps most impressively, he’s only struck out once in the past five games.

This is a good sign for a struggling Rangers team. Odor, who just signed a contract extension, has upped his average to .215 on the year now. While still below where it needs to be, it’s over .200 for the first time since April 9th. Texas has invested a lot of stock in Odor banking on him to be a mainstay in the Rangers order for years to come.

Many fans have called into question whether or not Odor should still be in the starting lineup. With the surge of Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a legitimate option in the infield, it seemed like Odor could lose his spot if he didn’t turn around. Texas is still unlikely to move on from Odor sheerly because they’ve invested time and money in a relatively young player. Rangers fans and ownership alike will hope that his 2016 form that saw him hit an impressive .271. As of now, it looks like we may be seeing the turn around hoped for.