MLB free agency: Marcell Ozuna playing the waiting game

Among the many players in MLB free agency that haven’t seen much activity this offseason is former Atlanta Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A little less than a year ago, free-agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna bet on himself by signing a one-year, $18 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. At his first crack in MLB free agency, Ozuna was still trying to show he was fully recovered from the shoulder surgery he underwent after the 2018 season.

Little did Ozuna know at the time that the 2020 season would be like no other, in ways that impacted him both positively and negatively.

In the shortened 60-game campaign, Ozuna started all of them. He made 19 starts in left field and two in right field for the National League East champs. With the designated hitter rule in effect for the NL in 2020, Ozuna made 39 starts as the extra stick as well.

In the process, Ozuna became the first National Leaguer to win a Silver Slugger at DH after what could have been a career year had it been a full campaign. Ozuna slashed .338/.431/.636, leading the NL with 18 home runs and 56 RBI.

He also hit three homers in the postseason, one in Atlanta’s sweep of the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild-Card Series and two more against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

But according to Buster Olney of ESPN.com (subscription required) Sunday, the market for Ozuna just isn’t there.

He is seen as more of a DH than he is an outfielder, an assessment backed up by manager Brian Snitker‘s decision to go with 37-year-old Nick Markakis and converted infielder Austin Riley in left field when Adam Duvall was injured, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Throw in budgetary concerns due to last season’s revenue being taken away because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact most teams already have plenty of guys who can hit the ball over the wall and the market for a perceived one-dimensional player evaporates fairly quickly.

That perception exists even though Ozuna was a Gold Glove left fielder in 2017, just a year before his shoulder problems, but professional sports are and will always be much more of a “what have you done for us lately” business.

In his eight-year career with the Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and the Braves, Ozuna is a lifetime .276/.335/.466 hitter with 166 home runs and 594 RBI in 991 career games. His strikeout rate of 21.1 percent isn’t outrageous in this era and in three seasons prior to 2020, Ozuna averaged nearly 30 home runs per season.

Now 30 years old, Ozuna is a quality big-league bat and someone will add him to their roster at some point. But it’s going to be at a price tag much more favorable to that team than it will be to what Ozuna might have been able to get in a normal year.