2. Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves upgraded their left field situation when they signed Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $18 million deal this past January, adding to their already-impressive lineup.
There’s a lot for the Atlanta Braves to like about Marcell Ozuna making a splash on a one-year deal.
First, he’s got a very positive track record as far as his health is concerned – he’s played in fewer than 148 games just once in the last four years – and he is still in the prime years of his career.
Furthermore, he’s basically a given to smash a mid-20s home run output, while also driving in quite a few runs hitting behind the likes of Ronald Acuna, Jr., Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman.
In their projections, ZiPS has Ozuna finishing out at just shy of 3.0 WAR, with near 30 homers and a wRC+ of 117.
The upside for Ozuna, though, seems to be even higher.
It seems as though everyone is waiting on the neon sleeve-wearing slugger to replicate his awesome 5.0 WAR, 143 wRC+ season that he had with Miami back in 2017, and a closer look at his numbers suggest maybe he’s not far from that point again.
According to baseballsavant, Ozuna is among baseball’s elite when it comes to exit velocity (93rd percentile) and hard-hit percentage (96th percentile).
That might not necessarily translate to an immediate inflation in Ozuna’s 2020 numbers, but it does suggest he was better – perhaps a lot better – than his .241 batting average indicated a season ago.
While there does stand to be some questions regarding Ozuna’s defense – which saw its share of blunders in St. Louis – the bat is a given to be powerful overall, and potentially among one of the better left field bats in all of baseball.
For insurance purposes, Adam Duvall, Nick Markakis, and Austin Riley are all possibilities on the table in the event Ozuna goes on the shelf for a while – all of which give the Atlanta Braves a strong option as a fill-in piece in left field, which is now a position of strength in Atlanta.