Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor hit his 20th and 21st home runs of his year in Friday’s 8-3 win over the Kansas City Royals, reaching the 20-homer barrier for the first time in his three MLB seasons.
He had just nine homers in 386 at-bats as a rookie in 2014 but improved to 16 (in 426 at-bats) last season, with 12 of those coming after the All-Star break.
The 22-year-old has built on last year’s strong finish for a true breakout campaign in 2016, and he is on pace for 33 home runs, 84 RBI and 100 runs in 608 at-bats.
Also boasting a .282 batting average and .508 slugging percentage, Odor’s only weakness has been his inability to draw walks, with just nine in 96 games limiting his on-base percentage to .301.
He was frequently used as the team’s lead-off hitter early in the year, but the Rangers have wisely deployed him from the 5-, 6- and 7-slots over the past couple months, which makes far more sense for a player with Odor’s unusual high-slugging, low-OBP profile.
In any case, Odor has repeated the feats of Ian Kinsler and Alfonso Soriano to become one of only three batters in franchise history to record 20 or more home runs in a season while primarily playing second base, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Kinsler accomplished the feat three times in eight years with the Rangers, topping out at 32 in 2011. Soriano did it twice in just two seasons with the franchise, including a 36-homer campaign in 2005.
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