Orioles signing Rougned Odor

[sportsfan8703]

Why can’t Odor have a bounce back season like Schoop did with Minnesota a few years ago?  Very similar games. 
 

Also, how were most people on here pro the Franco signing last year but against the Odor signing this year?  Cheaper deal. Same type of signing. Makes no sense. People cry about signings that strengthen our depth but forget we finished last year with Severino and McKenna hitting 4-5. 
 

He’s a bench player?  Odor signed here to build his value back up. He’ll be given Franco type ABs. 

Edited December 1, 2021 by sportsfan8703

[Moose Milligan]

52 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Well to be fair, Elias is going to sign more cheap, go nowhere players.

I agree with that.  I meant in terms of...like, what are we betting he does something other than that.  I fully expect more re-treads to be signed.  

I will not be surprised, however, if Odor is the most recognizable "name" of the bunch.

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Why can’t Odor have a bounce back season like Schoop did with Minnesota a few years ago?  Very similar games. 
 

Also, how were most people on here pro the Franco signing last year but against the Odor signing this year?  Cheaper deal. Same type of signing. Makes no sense. People cry about signings that strengthen our depth but forget we finished last year with Severino and McKenna hitting 4-5. 
 

He’s a bench player?  Odor signed here to build his value back up. He’ll be given Franco type ABs. 

Because Odor hasn't been good for several years.  His best season was 2016 when he was 22 years old.  .798 OPS.  Since then he's cracked .750 exactly once (.751 in 2018).  He's been below .700 for the past two seasons.  

Pro-Franco last year because it was in Spring Training and, IIRC, it's not like there was a lot of great competition to go up against.  I think people here (I know I am) annoyed by this signing because it's so early in the offseason.  Franco was somewhat of a last ditch effort, a Hail Mary.  While we have some MI talent in the minors that's a year or two away, Odor is a placeholder.  Doesn't make this team better.   

That, juxtaposed with the flurry of moves that have been made by a lot of other teams who are actually trying to get better makes this a tough one to swallow.  

 

[DrungoHazewood]

At least they got in now before the new CBA has a salary floor and the O's have to sign Odor types to $8M contracts just to get to the floor value.

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

 

Haha what are we betting?

He's got to pick up a couple scrap heap catchers at some point.

[jamalshw]

I haven't really weighed in on this yet, but my initial response was: why? Now, I'm in the camp of: why not? 

We knew we were going to add at least one veteran infielder to go with Urias, Mateo, Gutierrez and Jones. Odor likely costs the later two on that list ABs, but not the first two. Odor makes as much sense as anyone. He's somehow still young and a 0.3 WAR player last year, not great, but given we are paying league minimum we are getting replacement level results (or marginally better) for replacement level pay. That seems reasonable. His 82 OPS+ wasn't great--obviously--but it was better than 2019 and 2020. Really, it's a low cost, low risk move. Is there much likelihood of a reward? No, but perhaps Elias and team think they can unlock something and get him back to his 2018 form. And if not, we have a replacement level player at league minimum that we can cut at anytime with very little lost. He's a stop gap. Maybe Gutierrez, Nevin or Jones earns playing time over him. Maybe Vavra or Westburg dominate the minors and earn a midseason call up ahead of projection. If any of that happens, Odor is far from the type to block anyone and can be jettisoned rather easily. Given the league minimum cost, this make sense. It's not at all exciting, but it makes sense. And hey, it can't be worse than Valaika, Martin, Ruiz, WIlkerson, Franco, etc. 

[sportsfan8703]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Because Odor hasn't been good for several years.  His best season was 2016 when he was 22 years old.  .798 OPS.  Since then he's cracked .750 exactly once (.751 in 2018).  He's been below .700 for the past two seasons.  

 

C’mon Moose, wasn’t one of those two seasons like 40 games?  You taught me about SSS. 
 

What’s the worst that could happen with Odor?  He’s like Franco and we cut him?  
 

What are some of the positives?  He could rebuild his value and help us attract future FA. He could be a trade chip at the deadline. He could mash and we QO him, then collect a draft pick when he leaves for FA at 28. 

This is hilarious that this is being so criticized. Man, Robert Parrish, Kevin Mchale, and Larry Bird, ain’t walking though that door. 

[emmett16]

One of my favorite shirts is a silhouette of Odor punching Bautista in the face.  Can’t wait to rock it at the yard.  

[Sports Guy]

14 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Because Odor hasn't been good for several years.  His best season was 2016 when he was 22 years old.  .798 OPS.  Since then he's cracked .750 exactly once (.751 in 2018).  He's been below .700 for the past two seasons.  

Pro-Franco last year because it was in Spring Training and, IIRC, it's not like there was a lot of great competition to go up against.  I think people here (I know I am) annoyed by this signing because it's so early in the offseason.  Franco was somewhat of a last ditch effort, a Hail Mary.  While we have some MI talent in the minors that's a year or two away, Odor is a placeholder.  Doesn't make this team better.   

That, juxtaposed with the flurry of moves that have been made by a lot of other teams who are actually trying to get better makes this a tough one to swallow.  

 

And Franco had just been good in 2020.  Yes it wasn’t a full season but he still, he was good.  Odor hasn’t been that since 2018 and that is an outlier year over the last 6 years.

[Aristotelian]

5 minutes ago, jamalshw said:

I haven't really weighed in on this yet, but my initial response was: why? Now, I'm in the camp of: why not? 

We knew we were going to add at least one veteran infielder to go with Urias, Mateo, Gutierrez and Jones. Odor likely costs the later two on that list ABs, but not the first two. Odor makes as much sense as anyone. He's somehow still young and a 0.3 WAR player last year, not great, but given we are paying league minimum we are getting replacement level results (or marginally better) for replacement level pay. That seems reasonable. His 82 OPS+ wasn't great--obviously--but it was better than 2019 and 2020. Really, it's a low cost, low risk move. Is there much likelihood of a reward? No, but perhaps Elias and team think they can unlock something and get him back to his 2018 form. And if not, we have a replacement level player at league minimum that we can cut at anytime with very little lost. He's a stop gap. Maybe Gutierrez, Nevin or Jones earns playing time over him. Maybe Vavra or Westburg dominate the minors and earn a midseason call up ahead of projection. If any of that happens, Odor is far from the type to block anyone and can be jettisoned rather easily. Given the league minimum cost, this make sense. It's not at all exciting, but it makes sense. And hey, it can't be worse than Valaika, Martin, Ruiz, WIlkerson, Franco, etc. 

I think this is a reasonable take. The only thing that I don't like is 2B seems to be Urias's and Odor's best position and Urias is the one guy we have that looks like a possible every day player. I wonder if the plan is to try Urias at SS with Mateo being more of a utility guy. Urias did actually play the majority of his games at SS last year even if he was not spectacular there. 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 minutes ago, jamalshw said:

I haven't really weighed in on this yet, but my initial response was: why? Now, I'm in the camp of: why not? 

We knew we were going to add at least one veteran infielder to go with Urias, Mateo, Gutierrez and Jones. Odor likely costs the later two on that list ABs, but not the first two. Odor makes as much sense as anyone. He's somehow still young and a 0.3 WAR player last year, not great, but given we are paying league minimum we are getting replacement level results (or marginally better) for replacement level pay. That seems reasonable.

It almost never makes any sense to pay a quasi-replacement-level player free agent market rates.  If you want someone who can OPS .650 and give you average defense at second base just call up the 27-year-old guy who got 375 PA in AAA last year.  He's making $600k and will give you just about the same fraction of a win, and if he's 10% worse... so?  The difference between Bannon, Jones, and Odor isn't a whole win, and you'd be lucky if you could pick out which of the three is better in '22.  The only reason I can see to favor Odor is he might hit .230 with 17 homers by July and gets flipped for someone's #16 org prospect.

Or... they really are anticipating some kind of phased-in salary floor and know they can't go into '22 with a $40M payroll.

[Moose Milligan]

5 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

C’mon Moose, wasn’t one of those two seasons like 40 games?  You taught me about SSS. 
 

What’s the worst that could happen with Odor?  He’s like Franco and we cut him?  
 

What are some of the positives?  He could rebuild his value and help us attract future FA. He could be a trade chip at the deadline. He could mash and we QO him, then collect a draft pick when he leaves for FA at 28. 

This is hilarious that this is being so criticized. Man, Robert Parrish, Kevin Mchale, and Larry Bird, ain’t walking though that door. 

Sure, that's the worst that could happen.  We could cut him.

What are some of the positives?  Sure, he could rebuild his value and help attract future FA.  He could mash.  He could be a trade chip.  But what are you banking on that happening?

You're missing the point though...this move didn't make the Orioles better.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

C’mon Moose, wasn’t one of those two seasons like 40 games?  You taught me about SSS.

Over his last 1090 PAs he's OPS'd .689 and has been more than half a win below replacement.

[emmett16]

On a serious note, I imagine he was brought in as competition to light a fire under Urias, Mateo & Gutierrez.  Will be Surprised if he’s on the team come July. 

[sportsfan8703]

5 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Sure, that's the worst that could happen.  We could cut him.

What are some of the positives?  Sure, he could rebuild his value and help attract future FA.  He could mash.  He could be a trade chip.  But what are you banking on that happening?

You're missing the point though...this move didn't make the Orioles better.

So the Yankees last year picked Odor up to be a LH bat to balance out their lineup. Why is that not the same logic for us this year?  The NYY were trying to win a WS. Meanwhile we won 52 games last year.