Before the season, it was a question of whether teams would trade for Marcell Ozuna because of his off-the-field concerns. Now, nobody is going to trade for him because his production has been absolutely abysmal. Ozuna can no longer be trusted in the field, and at the plate, he hasn’t been much better.
The Big Bear is hitting an unsightly .229 with a .693 OPS. Pair that with his porous defense, and Ozuna has accrued -0.5 WAR on the season. However, if there is one aspect of his game that hasn’t taken a step back, it’s his power.
Ozuna has 13 bombs on the season through 71 games, which puts him right at a 30 home run pace. That means if things continue to trend in this direction, Ozuna could hit 30 home runs and still produce negative WAR — something you almost never see.
I’m sure it’s happened a handful of times, but the only time I can remember it happening on the Braves is with Matt Kemp. In 2016, Kemp was traded from San Diego to Atlanta, and between the two teams, he smacked 35 homers and even recorded an OPS north of .800. However, because of his atrocious defense in the outfield, he still ended the season with -0.5 WAR.
That’s a similar pace to what Marcell Ozuna is on. The only difference is Ozuna is no longer playing the outfield like he was earlier in the season out of necessity. He’s just pretty much doing nothing but hitting bombs and striking out. For the sake of the team, I hope the Big Bear figures it out. He has the chance to be a critical piece to Atlanta’s offense in the middle of the order. However, from what we’ve seen so far, it’s fair to question if things will ever get better. Ozuna could become the latest player to hit 30+ bombs and end the season with negative WAR.
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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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