Texas Rangers: Second base primed to be topic of debate in 2020

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 27: Rougned Odor #12 of the Texas Rangers forces out Clint Frazier #77 of the New York Yankees before making the throw to first at Globe Life Park in Arlington on September 27, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 27: Rougned Odor #12 of the Texas Rangers forces out Clint Frazier #77 of the New York Yankees before making the throw to first at Globe Life Park in Arlington on September 27, 2019 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 04: Rougned Odor #12 of the Texas Rangers follows through on his ninth inning home run against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 04: Rougned Odor #12 of the Texas Rangers follows through on his ninth inning home run against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

2019 Recap

We’ve started out our 2020 position previews with a bit of a trend for the Texas Rangers. Starting behind the plate, then at first base and now at second base, the Rangers saw less than ideal production during the 2019 season. Unlike the first two spots on our list though, second base saw far less rotation despite four players getting time. Rougned Odor led the way with 134 games played while a mixture of Danny Santana, Logan Forsythe and Nick Solak fill in the rest of the time.

  • Rougned Odor – 134 G – .207/.288/.448/.736
  • Danny Santana – 15 G -.283/.306/.533/.840
  • Logan Forsythe – 8 G – .259/.375/.370/.745
  • Nick Solak – 5 G – .294/.429/.588/1.017

While Santana and Solak were bright spots offensively, they played such a limited amount of time at second base, that the overall positional production was hurt by Odor’s struggles. As a unit, the Texas Rangers saw a .219 average and .755 OPS from their second basemen last season. Defensively, the Rangers struggled at the position as well with Rougned Odor regressing back to a -4.7 UZR/150 in 2019 after finishing with a +6.1 the season prior. Neither Santana nor Solak are known for their defensive acuity which raises some concern if Odor cannot improve his production on both sides of the ball entering next season.