Rougned Odor had a hard time finding the English word to describe what it felt like to get sent down to Triple A Monday.
The word he used was triste, which is Spanish for sad. Odor, 21, was demoted after starting the season with a .144 average.
And while Odor was sad about the move, he wasn't upset about it and understood the team's decision to send down a player who hit nine homers and drove in 47 last year after getting called up from Double A in May.
"Not mad," Odor said. "I wanted to stay with the team in the big leagues. I know I'm going work here and when I feel better again I'm going to come back. I know why I'm here."
Odor in in Triple A for the first time in his life mainly because of his bat. Odor expanded the strike zone too much to start the season and that led to his poor start and eventual loss of his job. He had an idea he was going to get sent down and was looking forward to getting to work.
He was the first member of the Round Rock team at Dell Diamond Tuesday.
"I was swinging at a lot of bad pitches so they sent me down to work on that," he said. "That's what I'm going to do here, just work on my strike zone and swing at good pitches."
Odor said the slow start led to a loss of confidence, which never happened last year as Odor played with a swagger.
"I was not like me," he said. "I was trying to play like I played but I didn't feel like me. That's why I'm here. I'm going to work on my stuff, work on my routine, my defense, my approach."
General manager Jon Daniels expects to see the old Odor too.
"Odor's a guy that he got there (to the majors) at 20 years old with 60 games above A ball because he plays with an edge, a competiveness, a little bit of an attitude that not everybody has," Daniels said. "I think with struggle you lose that a little bit. I think he's going to get some things worked out physically. When he gets that back from a confidence and an edge standpoint you'll see him to things he's capable of doing."
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