Atlanta Braves sign Marcell Ozuna on a one-year, $18M deal
According to reports, the Atlanta Braves have signed outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a one-year deal worth $18 million.
Just after the Hall of Fame announcements ended on Tuesday night, Jess Passan of ESPN hit us with some big news about the Atlanta Braves.
Passan reports that the Braves have signed free-agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a one-year deal worth $18 million.
Outfielder Marcell Ozuna and the Atlanta Braves are in agreement on one-year, $18 million contract, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 21, 2020
I had to go back a couple of times to verify that it was from his actual account because … ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?
Now I’ve never been on the Ozuna bandwagon, but that’s because I thought it would cost over $50 million and several years to land him.
But Atlanta is able to land him on a one-year deal to fill the void in left field and to replace the Nick Markakis and Adam Duvall platoon.
Ozuna was an All-Star in 2016 and 2017 with the Miami Marlins, but he’s spent the past two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals.
His best season came in 2017 when he was a 5 WAR player hitting .312/.376/.548 with 37 home runs and 93 RBI.
But his averages have gone down the past two seasons. Last year he hit .259/.243/.474 with 29 home runs in 130 games.
He’s still just 29 years old and will play all of 2020 at that age. And you know he’s going to give you close to 30 home runs, so that helps replace the power you lose from Josh Donaldson.
A lot has been made about his poor defense, but he actually won a Gold Glove in 2017 and looking at the numbers his defense wasn’t as bad in 2019 as some make it out to be.
If history tells us anything, Ozuna will be around a 3 WAR player for the Braves in left field if he remains healthy. And that’s a definite upgrade over what was planned to be there.
And it gives Atlanta a big clean-up bat behind Freddie Freeman in the lineup. It also allows the Braves to save some prospects in case they wanted to go out and make another upgrade through a trade.
One thing to keep in mind, Ozuna did reject a qualifying offer so Atlanta will have to surrender their third-highest 2020 draft pick to the Cardinals.
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Overall, this seems like a great move for the Braves and it keeps their options open for other moves. Check back with Tomahawk Take as we continue to cover the fallout of this signing.