Texas Rangers rumors: Rougned Odor extension talks continue

Texas Rangers rumors: Rougned Odor and the Texas Rangers continue to have talks on a contract extension, with Odor’s camp waiting for a response to their latest offer from the team, according to Jon Heyman.

When last we talked about this, a week ago, I noted that the Rangers were probably wanting to use the six year, $52.5 million extension Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis signed as a two year plus service time pre-arbitration-eligible second baseman prior to the 2014 season as a benchmark.

Heyman says the Rangers’ last offer was below what Kipnis got, while Odor’s camp sent a counter-proposal over the last couple of days and are waiting for the Rangers to respond. Heyman notes, interestingly, that Odor is represented by the Beverly Hill Sports Agency, which negotiated the Kipnis deal.

If the Rangers and Odor were to agree to a six year deal, it would buy out all of Odor’s arbitration years, as well as two free agency years. Odor is slated to make close to the league minimum this year, and his initial signing bonus was for less than $500,000, so this is his chance to lock in life-changing money, though potentially at the risk of committing to what would be below-market salaries going forward. Still, even a six year deal would mean Odor would be hitting the free agent market as a 28 year old, which is plenty young enough to cash in, should Odor choose to.