ARLINGTON, Texas _ Rougned Odor was supposed to be in the prime of his career but instead, as the 2019 season winds down, he's playing to keep it going.
At least with the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers second baseman, who signed a six-year extension before the 2017 season, will make $9.3 million in 2020, $12.3 in 2021 and 2022 and $13.5 in 2023.
But after a disastrous '19 season, his future with the Rangers under manager Chris Woodward is in doubt. If the club doesn't see some consistency in the final month, his status as an everyday player for Texas is on the line.
"Then we've got to make some decisions. It's just like everybody else. You've got to be productive in this game," Woodward said. "We're willing to withstand some lack of production, but this is the big leagues.
"I hate to say it, but you've got to be good to play every day. He knows. He was frustrated by a lot of things, he's been trying a lot of things. So I knew there was going to be some struggle in some areas because he was trying some new things."
For Odor, who has always been a streaky hitter, 2019 has been a nightmare at the plate. He had no lengthy stretches of good hitting until July. But that also faded as his production at the plate bottomed out again. His .193 batting average and .270 on-base percentage are the lowest in the majors.
He is 0 for 25 with an .038 on-base percentage with one walk and nine strikeouts with no RBIs or runs scored in his past eight games entering Thursday's series opener against the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Park. Odor was unavailable to talk before the game. He was 0 for 2 with a walk in his first three at-bats Thursday.
"He's got to show some improvement. I need to see it every day, every pitch," said Woodward, who was happy with Odor's approach the past two games.
"I pulled him aside and told him, 'OK, that looks better to me. It looked like you had a chance to hit, you were on path, your timing was better, your intent was better. You got rid of some of the things you were doing before.'"
Odor is open to the plate approach Woodward and his staff are teaching, but implementing it has been a struggle.
"To maintain that is hard. To break habits is really hard. You can't just say, 'OK, I've got it figured out now,'" he said. "You will go back to your old habits if you don't continually reinforce the new habits."
Woodward intends on playing Odor, but not every day.
"Honestly, he's got a month left to kind of show us that he can play on an everyday basis, that he can handle the quality of an at-bat every single game," Woodward said.
"That's everybody, though. No player is off of that (standard). If you're going to be an everyday player, especially in this league, you have to be good every game. You're not going to get hits every game, but you have to have good at-bat quality every day."
The issue of Odor's growing contract, however, is not part of the equation for Woodward.
"That's beyond my control. I can just decide whether I play him or not," he said. "I know he's trying, he's working, he's frustrated. I know he wants to be the player we all want him to be. It's tough. It's hard to hit in the big leagues."
