Dodgers interested in Marcell Ozuna?

[konu]

A report came out by Héctor Gómez who is an MLB insider for ESPNdeportes I believe. He said multiple teams had varying interests in free agent Outfielder/DH Marcell Ozuna. The Dodgers were one of those teams. Could this just be Ozuna’s agent trying to drum up interest in his client whose market has been relatively quiet so far this offseason? I would say yes but what we do know is the Dodgers will have varying interests in most free agents. Plus Ozuna fits a need the Dodgers have expressed, which is a right-handed bat, who hits lefties well. If the DH returns to the NL in 2021 I can definitely see the Dodgers looking harder at Ozuna. MLB trade rumors early in the offseason projected Ozuna would get 4 years, 18 million a year. I think that’s doable for the Dodgers.

 

Ozuna is coming off a career year which saw him finish 6th in the NL MVP voting and his numbers were incredible. He finished hitting .338 with an On-base percentage of .431 a slugging % of .636 and a staggering Ops of 1.067. A great Ops is above .900. He had an incredible year at the plate. He’s not a good fielder and has only had 2 seasons where his hitting has been elite. In 2017 with the Marlins and 2020 with the Braves. He had solid seasons with the Marlins and had some injury issues while with the Cardinals. He got healthy and turned in a great offensive year. This past season Ozuna was elite at exit velocity and hard-hit rate, he was elite at barreling the ball, he was elite at slugging, and was elite at taking walks. That bodes well for him in his future. He just turned 30 so there could still be some elite offensive seasons left for him. 

 

There are legit questions about how well he can actually hit since 1 of his elite seasons was a short 60 game sample size. He could regress back to his means which is still a pretty decent hitter by the way, especially if he’s healthy. I have no doubts the Dodgers could make him a really good hitter. AJ Pollock was an average hitter at best the last few years before signing with the Dodgers and since being here he’s legit been a good hitter so the Dodgers seemingly help players realize their potential and they could do the same for Ozuna.

 

Ozuna is an intriguing option, is he the right option? Let me know what you guys think.