The Braves absolutely needed to bring Marcell Ozuna back

In November, the Braves got off to a furious playoff debut after adding Drew Smyly and Charlie Morton to their rotation via free agency. The two deals in a relatively short time frame seemed to indicate that the Braves plan to be active for the remainder of the offseason and that they are also focusing on their weakness from the previous season. While both signings were good and improved Atlanta’s pitch staff, there was still some cautious optimism in the wake of those signings. Smyly and Morton are solid additions, but they shouldn’t be the gem of your offseason if you’re a team that came back to a World Series victory in the previous season.

So when I said that throughout November, I said it assuming the Braves would at least give us something to hang on to as the offseason progressed and we we were reconciling the pitchers and catchers reports.

As for the outlook for the remainder of the offseason, it’s encouraging to see the Braves off to a great start here. They did a solid job supporting the rotation by bringing in Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly. It might not be the huge free agency splash that some fans might have wanted to start throwing, but it’s certainly enough to make the Braves a better team than they were in. 2020 – especially with regard to rotation. There is still work to be done and it looks like the Braves are going to make a serious attempt to retain the services of Marcell Ozuna. If they are in the mood to bring Ozuna back, I have no doubts the Braves can find a way to bounce back and maintain the good offseason.

In fact, it would have been a huge disappointment if the Braves had sniffed Marcell Ozuna at this stage of the offseason. After seeing the Dodgers, Padres, Mets, Cardinals (Dear Rockies, what was that trade in the world?), And even the Phillies at least make an effort to acquire and / or retain impact players to improve their squad, the Braves were apparently backed into a corner where they would have gone from clinging to infallible National League contenders to being just slightly ahead of the pack if they had failed to bring Ozuna back into the fold.

Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the Braves missing out on Ozuna, as they took care of that and made sure he was there for the next four years as well.

Needless to say, this qualifies as a big off-season win for the Braves. Ozuna’s contributions to plate during the 2020 season helped transform what was a good Braves lineup into one of the deepest lineups in the entire National League. Ozuna, Freddie Freeman, and Ronald Acuña Jr. formed what was arguably the best 1-2-3 punch at the top of any formation you would see on the pitch last season. Freddie Freeman has had an incredible season in 2020, and part of that is because Ozuna provided top-level protection behind him. Going around Freeman was not the option as it had been in previous years, as it meant that Ozuna had the potential to punish the opposing team with runners on base – which he did regularly. last season. The Braves being able to bring this line back for the 2021 season is undoubtedly a good thing, and hopefully they can repeat their efforts at plate for a full season (hopefully) this year.

It also helps that Marcell Ozuna’s return was agreed upon at a price that’s fair enough for both parties. As for various predictions of what kind of contract Ozuna would sign, the financial numbers were typically between $ 60 million and $ 75 million, so the fact that Ozuna ended up getting $ 65 million guaranteed is pretty good. for him – a $ 16 A million dollar AAV contract is no reason to sneeze when it makes you the second highest paid player on the team. Plus, Ozuna seems happy enough to call Atlanta home for the next few years and the rest of the clubhouse seem excited to find him. Everybody is happy!

As for the Braves, this is seen as a good deal. Again, this isn’t a crazy (and bordering on obscene) deal like the ones they’ve done on Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies, but it’s enough where it makes sense given the how the Braves have spent money in recent years. I imagine the inexplicable lack of clarity surrounding the use of a Universal Designated Hitter for this season and beyond was what caused much of the delay between Ozuna, the Braves, and every other National League team. which also had an interest. I also assume that if the Braves were ready to sign Ozuna to a four-year contract as he enters his 30-year season, that means they are confident there will be a universal DH this season or at a given moment. in the near future. Either way, it’s a deal that makes a lot of sense in terms of the money and the fit – frankly, it’s still a little mystifying that it took so long for this to happen.

At the risk of getting too carried away by the euphoria of the Braves retaining a hitter of Ozuna’s caliber, I think this contract is an indication that the Braves could end this offseason with a flurry of activity. They still have some work to do to fill the back of their pen and could still add another bat to go into the outfield – Adam Duvall immediately comes to mind when it comes to that. They also clearly have some flexibility to make other movements, as who touted the 1-2-3 move at the top of their roster will cost the Braves nearly a million dollars less in 2021 than what the Dodgers will pay Trevor Bauer on his own this season.

The Braves might do well with a few more small-scale signings to round out the roster, but there’s another option that looks more and more enticing with each passing day. On Friday, Hector Gomez was one of the first MLB insiders to report that the Braves and Marcell Ozuna had reached a deal. He later had this to say about a business rumor that has been going around the internet for some time now:

I always recommend that you take rumors like this with a boulder-sized grain of salt, but I also want you to imagine all the Braves transforming Acuña-Freeman-Ozuna’s 1-2-3 punch. in 1-2-3- 4 combo of Acuña-Freeman-Jose Ramirez-Ozuna. Seriously, close your eyes for a second and think about what that would be like with these four havoc on all the opposing pitchers that cross their path. It’s fun to dream, isn’t it? It is apparently now incumbent upon the Braves to turn those dreams into what would surely be an incredible reality.

When you consider some of the ridiculous poor returns some teams have received for trading their superstar players in recent years (including this offseason), it’s possible that the Braves could close a trade with Cleveland without having to destroy the quality of their organization. . depth in the process. That being said, the Braves should still be aggressive in their pursuit if Cleveland is truly shopping with Jose Ramirez. The National League top is extremely competitive this year, and the addition of a play like Ramirez could mean the difference between a short stint in October and another deep run that could potentially go deeper than the NLCS for the Braves.

The Braves can now reflect on those possibilities with the re-signing of Marcell Ozuna for the next four years. This is the type of move the Braves had to make to ensure they had a good and productive offseason. Objectively, the Braves are currently a slight favorite to win their fourth straight NL East title, so they still have a move or two to make before they can truly consider themselves true favorites to take over the division. Still, they absolutely had to make sure that a hitter of Ozuna’s caliber was still in the lineup for 2021 and beyond. They did it and now the Braves have a chance to turn a good offseason into a great one as we approach the start of spring training.