ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Rangers officially announced a new six-year contract for young second baseman Rougned Odor on Thursday.
It includes a club option for 2023 and guarantees him at least $49.5 million.
Also in the fine print? Two horses.
That's right, as part of the contract, Odor will get two horses from the Rangers, who retweeted a picture of the pair after Thursday's news conference to announce the deal.
Here are Rougned Odor's horses, which came a part of the contract extension.@Rangers pic.twitter.com/mbF7YRWkRk
— Jared Sandler (@SandlerJ) March 30, 2017
While the horse talk may sound random, it's not arbitrary. Odor described himself as passionate for horses, noting one of his hobbies is being around the animals.
That's why the front office suggested that including them in a new contract would make for a good negotiating tactic.
"It's our policy when we make a contract offer, we copy the player on it," general manager and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels told reporters. "So Rougie has these big numbers in front of him, and he has a poker face. Nothing changed. Then I slid my phone across with a picture of the horses on it, and he said, 'Hey, can you send that to me?' His eyes lit up, and I thought, 'All right, maybe we have a chance.'"
As for the other parts of the deal: It includes a $2 million signing bonus and a $13.5 million club option for 2023 with a $3 million buyout. Odor's salary will be $1 million this season, and then it will increase to $3 million in 2018 and $7.5 million in 2019. He will make $9 million in 2020 before $12 million in each of the last two years of the contract.
At 23, Odor is already going into his fourth season with the Rangers. He hit .271 with 33 home runs and 88 RBIs last year, when he became known to many for punching Toronto slugger Jose Bautista during a May 15 game, the finale of a contentious series. Odor served a seven-game suspension for that incident.
Odor was the youngest player in the majors when he made his Rangers debut in May 2014. He has hit .265 with 58 homers and 197 RBIs in his career.
He played for Venezuela this spring in the World Baseball Classic.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.