Braves Veteran Asks for New Contract

Atlanta Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna leads all of baseball in RBIs and is second in homers.

The Atlanta Braves have a decision to make about the future of their designated hitter position

The Atlanta Braves have some decisions to make this offseason.

The biggest question is about the pending free agency of starting pitcher Max Fried – the lefty, who turned 30 this offseason, is expected to be one of the most highly sought-after free agents in the upcoming class, given the relative lack of frontline starting options available in free agency each offseason.

But right behind Fried’s free agency is another significant roster-related decision to make: what to do with designated hitter Marcell Ozuna. This season is the final guaranteed under a four-year, $65M contract that he signed after his Silver Slugger season of 2020, a year in which he led all of MLB in plate appearances (267) and led the National League in homers (18), RBIs (56), and total bases (145).

The first two years of the deal looked to be a rare miss for president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos after Ozuna hit a combined .222 with a .397 slugging and playing in only 172 combined games due to both injuries and off-field issues. But the last two seasons are validating the decision, with “the Big Bear” swatting 49 homers and putting up a .284 average.

After last night’s 2 RBI night, Ozuna leads all of Major League Baseball in RBIs (31) and the National League in homers (9) while putting team highs in all three slashline categories (.344/.416/.678). He told David O’Brien of The Athletic that he hoped to sign an extension that would keep him Atlanta beyond this season, the last guaranteed year of his deal. “Yeah, there’s no way you want to go explore somewhere else when you feel comfortable, when you’ve got your teammates and you’ve got your organization’s love,” Ozuna told O’Brien. “There’s no doubt in my decision. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

(The Braves do hold a one year, $16M club option for Ozuna with a $1M buyout, an option that feels virtually certain to be picked up based on where we sit right now.)

Should the Braves go ahead and commit to an extension for Ozuna? Let’s break down the case for each decision.

Why Atlanta should re-sign Marcell Ozuna

Bringing back Ozuna comes down to two things – his on-field production and what he’s done for the clubhouse.

The on-field case is the easiest to make: Since May 1st of 2023, when Ozuna turned around a dreadful start (.085 w/ .397 OPS) with a monster series in his offseason home of Miami against the Marlins, Ozuna’s been one of the best hitters in all of baseball. His combined stat line is an absurd .305/.375/.615, with his 47 homers over that span coming in tied for 2nd with Philly’s Kyle Schwarber (and just behind teammate Matt Olson).

And unlike most of MLB’s best hitters, Ozuna’s been doing this on a daily basis from the designated hitter spot, essentially getting four pinch-hit appearances per game. It’s something that not every player can do, as Braves players will tell you. “It takes getting used to,” Austin Riley admitted back in early April. “Just from being constantly locked into the game; I feel like playing defense, you’re in the game, with the flow of the game. And being a DH, you may sit for 45 minutes until you get your next turn. So, it takes a special someone to be a DH.”

Any argument about committing more guaranteed money for Ozuna starts with his on-field production, which has been spectacular, but that’s not the only area in which the veteran from the Dominican Republic has provided value to the organization.

Several Braves players have discussed what a Marcell Ozuna pep talk has done for them, with Michael Harris II singlehandedly crediting Marcell for his 2023 turnaround after back and knee injuries had him batting just .163 in early June. “Marcell came up to me and gave me the pep talk that I needed,” Harris said on a conversation with Ozuna that occurred during the eighth inning of a June 6th matchup against the New York Mets. “He told me my season was starting with that at-bat, and ever since then I’ve been hitting the ball hard and seeing it good. He just reminded me that I have the potential to be one of the better players in the league, and just believe in myself and go out there and not worry about mechanical things, just go out there and play.”

From the date of that pep talk through the end of the season, Harris put up a .335/.360/.552 line with 16 homers and 15 stolen bases in just 100 games.

It’s not just the young players that have benefitted from Ozuna’s wisdom – last weekend’s hero, veteran Travis d’Arnaud, also credited Ozuna’s words with fueling his homer binge of five homers in eight at-bats. “He actually helped me four days ago,” said d’Arnaud on Sunday. “We were in Houston and things are (now) turning around for me. He’s a brilliant hitter, he understands how to hit, never tries to do too much and always has everyone’s back. I’m thankful I’m his teammate.”

Why Atlanta might not re-sign Marcell Ozuna

The case for why Atlanta might want to re-sign Ozuna is fairly obvious – he’s been both raking at the plate and helping others do the same.

But the reasons Atlanta might not want to bring him back are just as plain, if you’re willing to discuss it.

Ozuna’s two rough seasons to open the contract were partly because he was in a slump at the plate, but he also wasn’t available…and the reasons why he wasn’t available have a big part to do with the upcoming decision for the Atlanta front office.

Ozuna broke two fingers on his hand in May of 2021, an injury that ended up keeping him out for the entire year. Whale he was out, he served a 20-game suspension from MLB that was levied under the league’s Domestic Violence policy, a suspension issued after police were called for a domestic disturbance at his Sandy Springs, GA home. The charges, originally felonies for domestic violence and aggravated assault, were later reduced to misdemeanors.

Not to be outdone, Ozuna was again arrested in August of 2022 for DUI, pleading no contest and paying a $1000 fine. Major League Baseball did not suspend him from games for the offense.

To his credit, Ozuna’s never shied away from the off-field issues, openly discussing the therapy and other work he’s done to both connect with his family and avoid the situations like those that plagued him for his first few years in Atlanta. And the work’s, well, worked. “I don’t have the struggles that I had before; I don’t have too many things on my mind,” Ozuna’s told the media. “Right now I play with a clear mind, which is way better. When you had to go out there and you hear those boos, that was on my mind. And I said to myself, ‘Chill out and do what you need to do. You know you can hit, and they give you the opportunity.’”

But despite the Braves clubhouse moving on and welcoming Ozuna back into the fold, not everyone in the fanbase has. There’s a PR calculus to be made on the decision to bring back Ozuna, with a subset of fans undoubtedly going to be unhappy if the team commits more guaranteed money to a player with a checkered legal past.

There’s also an age-related decline to worry about it. Alex Anthopoulos and the front office have made a point in many of their extensions to not go much past a player’s early 30s, as professionals generally start to experience declines in their skills at that point in their aging curves. Ozuna, already 33, isn’t in line for much more than one or two additional years, at most. Several designated hitters around the league at similar points in their aging curves, like Giancarlo Stanton and Masataka Yoshida, are experiencing slow starts this season that would reinforce the concern.

Should Atlanta re-sign Ozuna?

Not right now, no, for a few reasons.

The first is that Atlanta does have club control over the player for the 2025 season, and they’d get that at a $2M discount over his salary for this season. There’s no reason to extend guaranteed money now when you’d essentially be paying at the height of Ozuna’s value, given the hot start.

But ultimately, it feels like a similar deal to what Chris Sale signed with Atlanta is what’s going to come down the pike sometime between now and the start of free agency: adding an additional year to his current deal and pushing the club option one more season, which gives both more guaranteed money to the player and the team some cost certainty but also a “safety valve” against significant age-related decline (or another dumb off-field incident).

Bringing back Ozuna would not only allow the team to continue letting their regulars play every day, but also keep a valuable veteran presence in the locker room, one that has tangible benefits to the rest of the roster from a performance standpoint.

Tags: Atlanta Braves News

Braves Veteran Asks for New Contract

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