It took an interesting gift for the Texas Rangers’ to get a very young player, known mostly for punching Jose Bautista in the face, to sign a very lucrative and long extension with the ballclub. Yet, it worked.
It’s not unusual for a player at the tender age of 23 to sign a very long extension, but Rougned Odor wasn’t completely thrilled when the Texas Rangers took a chance and offered him one.
While the Rangers did win the American League Western Division the past two seasons there are no guarantees that they will again or again in the next six years – through which they now control Odor.
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For me it seems it should be a cautionary tale these days especially when you look at Mike Trout, unarguably the best player in baseball, who at 22 years old signed an extension with the Los Angeles Angeles and is now stuck playing on a bad baseball team through 2020.
Regardless the Rangers wanted to lock down their talented second baseman who hit .271 with 33 home runs and 88 RBI in 2016. Who can blame them?
Having that kind of power in the middle infield is not something you find everyday.
Odor’s contract extension is for six years and $49.5 million, including a $2 million signing bonus and a $13.5 million option for 2023, or a $2 million buyout. Staring all that money in the face, Odor at just 23 seemingly needed to think it over a bit more.
Even though, according to MLB.com, the young kid from Venezuela was already planning on buying land for a ranch in Texas, he still wasn’t sure.
The ownership group new of Rougned Odor’s passion for his new ranch and especially his passion for horses, and they mentioned the idea of a ranch-warming gift to Rangers’ president of baseball operations and GM Jeff Daniels.
The ranch-warming gift is what sealed the deal for Odor. At the press conference Thursday, a reporter asked Daniels about the horses. His basic reply was that he really didn’t know much about horses except the fact that Odor’s contract included two, a white one and a brown one.
These are in fact the horses that sealed the Odor deal. This is not a joke pic.twitter.com/O0Ka03RXRb
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) March 30, 2017
Yes, with a vast variety of breeds of horses out there that isn’t providing anyone with much information.
Fortunately Odor decided to help out his now long term GM with this part and smiled broadly saying simply,
"“Quarter horses.”"
Personally, I’m curious as to how and what types of gifts are allowed to be included in contract deals. Can an organization give fancy cars or houses? Or do the gifts have to be of the four-legged kind?
Regardless, the Rangers did what they needed to do to make their already well known and soon-to-be star second baseman happy and it all it took was two – let’s be specific here – Quarter horses.
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See? The horses in this story were no joke. The Texas Rangers have Rougned Odor and Rougned Odor has his horses. It’s a win-win scenario!