Atlanta Braves Worst Defensive Players of 2023: Marcell Ozuna
Marcell Ozuna has had a resurgent season with the bat. However, he has struggled on defense for years. We recently covered the fact that Ozuna is working out at first base, which is really cool. Ozuna was once a Gold Glove Award winner with the Marlins. He actually used to have an above-average throwing arm and could get to balls well enough that some people gave him a trophy.
Now he just looks like he plays defense with the glove trophy on his hand instead of a real glove. See, the trophy is solid and made of... I guess it's pure gold, like a pirate's booty. But it doesn't make a very effective baseball mitt.
Not only has Ozuna's arm withered away over the past several seasons, he looks like he's wearing ice skates on asphalt when he tries to track down flyballs.
He's pretty much been relegated to a DH role this year, but he has appeared in a meager 14 innings in left field this season. In those 14 innings, he has somehow posted a -1 DRS. I know at this point, it's a silly exercise, but it sure is fun so I'm gonna do it. Ozuna has a 135-game pace of -85 DRS. A more realistic look at his performance would be from last year. He posted -6 DRS in 420 innings with one of the worst arms in the outfield.
We wish him well in his first base endeavors. Thanks for hitting all those home runs. Love you, big guy!