Options.

He had a shockingly strong rookie campaign, but his sophomore season got off to a start that went from rocky to worse. He wasn’t hitting, he was sloppy and unreliable defensively, and then he was sitting.

And on May 11, he was optioned for the first time, shipped to AAA.

That was Rougned Odor, one year ago today.

Batting an anemic .144/.252/.233, Odor went down to Round Rock, took the demotion as a challenge rather than as a sentence, hit .352/.426/.639 over 30 games, and returned to Texas on June 15.

Odor hit .292/.334/.527 the rest of way for the Rangers, and then put up an .881 OPS in the ALDS. All told since his five-week trip to the Pacific Coast League that kicked off a year ago today, he’s a .297/.335/.534 big league hitter.

When Odor was optioned last May 11, Texas purchased the contract of journeyman Tommy Field to help hold second base down. The move was clearly designed to get Odor going, not to get Field to the big leagues.

But when Odor returned in mid-June, the move was made, at least in part, based on something other than his own timetable. Delino DeShields had strained a hamstring, forcing a DL move.

It’s May 11 again, and today’s report is not about Rougned Odor. It’s about the other guy.

It’s May 11, and I’d like to see DeShields optioned for the first time, shipped to AAA.

For the good of the team and, hopefully, of the player.

The way you keep Nomar Mazara’s bat in the lineup when Shin-Soo Choo returns from his rehab assignment is to put them on the outfield corners, and make Ian Desmond the everyday center fielder.

You won’t lose anything defensively in center. Desmond — whose experience in the outfield isn’t that much less than DeShields’s — is the better defender of the two right now, in just about every category.

The arrival of Drew Stubbs, a capable center fielder for the bench, means you don’t need to wait for Choo to farm DeShields out.

And I promise: This is the report I planned to write this morning well before Ryan Rua obliterated righthander Matt Albers’s two-out, 1-2 fastball over the center field fence to give Texas its most dramatic comeback moment of the season, and its largest since August 1, 2012, when Rua was in his first full pro season, playing third base for Short-Season A Spokane, and DeShields was in his second, playing second base for Low A Lexington and High A Lancaster.

Coming into last night’s eighth, which Texas entered down, 11-6, Albers had allowed one earned run in 15.2 2016 innings. He’d held righthanders to a .189/.250/.216 average in 40 plate appearances.

Rua, largely called upon against left-handed starters this year, had hit .160/.192/.200 off righties in 26 trips.

But he got the chance in the eighth, almost out of necessity, and he took advantage of it.

I’m more than OK letting Rua face anyone for a few days, while Choo rounds back into game shape.

But this report isn’t about Ryan Rua, either.

I would option DeShields this morning. I’ve been leaning that way for a couple weeks.

He’s taking third strikes and bad routes. He’s swinging for the fences when that’s not his game. He’s tentative in the field and, suddenly and stunningly, tentative on the bases.

Call Andrew Faulkner up, and designate Anthony Ranaudo for assignment — I have doubts as to whether he’d be claimed on waivers, and regardless, given his five-walk fourth (immediately after Bryan Holaday’s three-run homer tied the game), the manager and pitching coach aren’t going to trust Ranaudo to get any pivotal outs anytime soon.

(Opposite case with Alex Claudio, who was sensational in what looked like mop-up duty and ended up absolutely earning the improbable win and the trust of the manager. If he gets optioned today to get a second fresh arm up here — hopefully not necessary given that Cole Hamels is starting and the team is off tomorrow — he’ll be back.)

Moving Ranaudo off the 40-man roster allows you to purchase either Jared Hoying or James Jones, neither of whom in on the 40-man.

While Stubbs’s presence doesn’t make it as important to get another center fielder up here if DeShields is sent out, you do want another outfielder available aside from Stubbs, and while putting Hoying on the roster, especially if it’s just for a few days (until Choo returns), means he could end up taking up a spot on the 40 all season, the 26-year-old (27 next week) can leave as a six-year free agent this winter if not on the roster. He’s had a very good start to his fourth AAA season (.279/.391/.532, 15 extra-base hits and 19 walks in 30 games, plus seven stolen bases), plays all three outfield spots, and I’m not sure what DeShields does — right now, at least — that Hoying (who’s played all three outfield spots this year, and primarily center) can’t.

Hoying will be gone this winter anyway if he’s not rostered in advance. He’s earned an opportunity to compete for big league work, whether it’s here or somewhere else. If he comes up here and, as 60-day DL players like Robinson Chirinos and Tanner Scheppers and Keone Kela and Josh Hamilton need reentry onto the roster, eventually gets designated for assignment and lost on waivers or traded, then his departure would be accelerated by a few months. OK.

Or maybe he does enough good things here in the meantime, and he stays.

But this report isn’t about Jared Hoying.

It’s about a player whose actions look tentative, whose confidence looks shot, whose body language suggests that he’s not so sure he’s the player he was a year ago, and whose production suggests just that.

Challenging DeShields with a AAA assignment could pay dividends down the road.

Hope so, at least.

That’s what this report is about.

Desmond in center, Mazara in right, Rua in left. Stubbs and Hoying on the bench. One of them starting against certain lefties, with Rua moving to first base.

Mazara to left, and Hoying back to AAA, when Choo returns to reclaim right field.

Delino DeShields in Round Rock, leading off and playing center field every day. Asked to get bunts down. Running again. Taking charge defensively. Refinding the edge he played with last summer, when he was so important to this team’s success.

The league has adjusted to DeShields. It’s his turn to respond, and that process should start in the Pacific Coast League.

DeShields can return when the time is right. In the meantime, if a stint 200 miles south motivates the second-year player and gets him going again, much as a reassignment to AAA a year ago today did for another second-year player, then the big club will be better off for it in the long run — and, the way things have been going, may not suffer for it in the meantime.