Atlanta Braves: Marcell Ozuna doesn’t need to be Donaldson, he just needs to be himself

Let’s look at 2019

Looking at his numbers, you could argue that Ozuna had the second best overall season of his career last year. He had his second highest home run and RBI totals, in line with previous seasons, and perhaps surprisingly, stole a career high 12 bases. The one chink in his armor could be a career low .241 batting average.

That batting average isn’t because he’s not hitting the ball hard. According to Baseball Savant, Ozuna ranked 15th in all of MLB in hard hit ball percentage. He also ranked 22nd in average exit velocity and tied for 19th when it came to barreling the ball. He did so in 8.6% of his at-bats. Ozuna swings freely and doesn’t have mercy on the baseball.

You should also note that Ozuna’s production could have been greater as he missed 28 games with fractured fingers. He hit 20 home runs (ten of those came in April) before the injury and drove in 62 runs, and possibly missed what would have been his third All-Star game.

So, Ozuna’s first half was good, but he cooled after returning from the injured list. He hit just nine home runs in the last 50 games he played in, and saw his average slowly slide from .260 to .241. However, that changed in the postseason.

Ozuna hit .429 against the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS collecting nine hits and hitting two home runs in game four. In the NLDS, he, along with the entire St. Louis offense struggled, but Ozuna still managed to go 3 for 12, and collecting two hits in Game 3 of the Washington Nationals’ four-game sweep of the Cards.

I didn’t forget about defense either — Ozuna has never made more than five errors in a full season. He’s got a gold glove. Sure, his routes might not be the most efficient and he’s a bigger, slower guy compared to some outfielders we’ve had — but not everyone can be Andruw Jones.

Either way, Ozuna was worth eight defensive runs according to baseball reference — Austin Riley was worth one. Regardless of what you believe about his defense, good or bad – he’s an upgrade.

A solid postseason performance is definitely a plus, and you can’t fault Ozuna for having a couple of months where he didn’t perform as well. After all, Josh Donaldson didn’t seem like a former MVP until June rolled around.

I don’t expect Atlanta Braves fans to be disappointed if 2020 is a repeat of the 2019 season, especially if he can manage not to miss a month.