Texas Rangers: Is Rougned Odor Slumping Again?

After having a stellar turnaround to his 2018 campaign, has Rougned Odor sunken to his old ways, and back to a major slump?

Rougned Odor has had a pretty up and down 2018 season for the Texas Rangers, with some high hills, and some low valleys. After being ice-cold in April and May, Odor picked it up to a league average second baseman in June, then turning red-hot in July. Since then, he cooled off in August, and has been ice-cold again in September. What Gives?

Rougie’s Season for the Texas Rangers

Overall, Odor’s season has been a fantastic turnaround. It brought hope back into Rangers fans’ eyes again, after seeing his absolutely abysmal 2017 campaign. According to BaseballReference, Odor has posted a career high in bWAR so far in 2018, sitting just short of 3.0. After playing in every single of game of last season, posting a bWAR of -0.2, this was a much-needed spark from him. Defensively, his improvements from the 2017 season have become even more clear. He’s grown to the point that he’s an above average defensive second baseman. He can still be frustrating, but 2018 was a huge success for his growth.

September Lows

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After finishing August with near his career average numbers, he’s fallen into another deep slump, and looking closely shows that he’s somewhat reverted back to his old ways. In his past 30 games, Odor is hitting just .202 with 4 homeruns and 34 strikeouts. Definitely not a great statline, but players have slumps, right? Nothing to be worried about. But, looking at his more recent games, it doesn’t get better. His last 7 games, he’s hitting .143 with just 1 walk and 9 strikeouts, with no homeruns. It appears that whatever funk he’s in, he’s not doing great to get out of it.

Hope For Revival

There are about 2 weeks remaining in the 2018 MLB season. Odor definitely still has time to turn it around, because it’s always tough going into the 6 month offseason on a deep, deep slump. If he can go back to being more patient and taking walks more than swinging out of his shoes every at bat, we should have nothing to worry about for him going into the 2019 season.