Yankees activate Rougned Odor just in time for revenge series

Will Rougned Odor be swinging out of his shoes in his return to the Yankees’ active roster on Tuesday night?

Of course he will! But that’ll have nothing to do with the opponent. He kind of just…does that regardless.

Amid all the discussion of the Yanks’ desperate need for a lefty bat (author’s note: still desperate, this doesn’t fix that), they’ll at least be getting a versatile one back into the lineup on Tuesday just a few weeks after we worried he might’ve been done for the season.

They’ll also be adding a pretty solid locker room catalyst to the mix, which never hurts.

As expected, after Albert Abreu was demoted late Monday following some excellent pen-saving relief (unironically, thanks King), Odor found his way back to the active roster Tuesday afternoon.

From a potentially catastrophic knee injury in a collision at the plate against Houston back to his old stomping grounds in two weeks. Not bad.

The Yankees have activated Rougned Odor from the IL.

The Yankees’ slap-dash decision to acquire Odor came out of nowhere in early April — and was probably unplanned — but paid immediate dividends. In his first game with the team in Tampa, he knocked in the tie-breaking run in extras to salvage exactly one win at the Trop. Though his numbers after that looping single remain pedestrian at best (a .164 batting average and four homers), his bat flips in Cleveland and hard-sliding hustle against the Astros were definitely emblematic of New York’s charge back to relevance this season.

Add in the fact that the Bombers have sleepwalked through their last 18 innings of baseball, including likely the most boring loss of the season with Gerrit Cole on the mound Monday, and the team could use his lefty pop and energy right about now.

Since Odor’s collision, the Yankees have also lost Gleyber Torres (short-term), Giancarlo Stanton (short-term, we think) and Aaron Hicks (long-term, we think) for protracted periods of time, giving Gio Urshela a few days off, too, to manage a knee injury. That’s led to lineups with unpleasant-looking bottom halves, which Odor could help solve in more ways than one.

Now that Luke Voit has also returned while Stanton’s on the shelf, expect a good deal more of DJ LeMahieu at third, Urshela at short, Odor at second, and Nuke at first. It’s not ideal, but until a very bored Torres is cleared to return to the team, it’s probably the superior lineup here.

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