Rougned Odor, Texas Rangers agree on extension

Rougned Odor and the Texas Rangers have agreed on a contract extension, per Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, and Evan Grant on Twitter. Heyman says the deal is 6 years, $49.5 million, with one option year.

Although it isn’t clear yet, I’m assuming the six years includes the 2017 season, which would mean that Odor is potentially under team control through 2023. If the six years kicks in after the 2017 season, then he would potentially be under team control through 2024.

The Rangers and Odor have been talking extension for over a year, and it seemed like just a matter of time before this got done. Good news for team and player here.

Odor had reportedly been seeking something similar to the 6 year, $52.5 million deal, with a 7th year team option, that Jason Kipnis got heading into 2014. Kipnis, like Odor, was a quality second baseman seen as a part of the “core” of the team, and who had two-plus years of service time, but was not yet arbitration-eligible. At $49.5 million, Odor is getting a little less than Kipnis did, but we will need to see what the structure of the deal is, and what the 7th year option looks like.

Odor signed for just $425,000 in 2011, and while that’s not chump change, he hasn’t gotten the sort of big payday that, say, Nomar Mazara or Ronald Guzman got to sign. Moreover, at a little over $500,000 per year, his major league salaries have been well above what the average American makes, but not life-changing money. This gives Odor security for himself and his family for generations, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a significant signing bonus as part of this as well. In addition, Odor will be 29 when this contract ends (assuming the option is picked up), so he will still be well-positioned when he hits free agency.

The 23 year old Odor has a career .265/.302/.464 slash line in 384 major league games, along with 4.5 bWAR. The second baseman is a fan favorite already, as well as a favorite of the front office — Ray Davis said, at the appeal hearing for Odor in connection with his suspension for punching Jose Bautista, that he thought Odor would be a Hall of Famer -- and this locks him in as a Ranger for a long time.

Interestingly, Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Rangers have also had extension talks with outfielder Nomar Mazara, who isn’t arbitration eligible until after 2018, and won’t be eligible for free agency until after 2021.

More details on this as they become available...