With a week until Opening Day, we'll take a look at the five most important factors to Rangers' success in 2016, spread out over — you guessed it — five days.
No. 5: Rougned Odor having a full season of second-half Rougned Odor
When last season began, there might not have been a player Rangers fans were more excited about than Rougned Odor. He burst on to the scene in the Rangers' awful 2014 season and was one of the few bright spots as a 20-year-old second baseman with a bit of a nasty edge to him.
Through 29 games, he hit .144 with one homer and nine RBIs to go with his 25 strikeouts and seven walks. In other words, it was awful.
That's when the Rangers sent Odor down to the minors to get things figured out with what had to have been a bit of a fear that 2014 was just a flash in the pan. He came back up five weeks later, and he was a completely different player.
After he came back, he played in 91 more regular-season games and hit .292 in those games with an .861 OPS, 18 doubles, eight triples and 15 homers to go with 52 RBIs. He had 54 strikeouts and 16 walks — a much better ratio than his near strikeout-per-game clip before being demoted.
You thought Rangers fans were excited about Odor prior to last season, imagine how things are right now. They're pretty dang excited, especially after his standout postseason. If he can play a full season like he played those 91 games, the Rangers have themselves an all-star second baseman and a future cornerstone to the franchise. If not, it's going to be awfully disappointing.
