A record-setting offense usually requires a surprise performance from an unlikely source. In 2023, that performance came from Marcell OHzuna.
Brian Snitker deserves a lot of credit for OHzuna’s 2023 success. Before you lose your mind at that statement, remember the month of April with me.
Marcell was NOHzuna in April, going 5-for-59. Five-for-freaking-59. That’s a slash line of .085/.194/.203/.397. The turn-around of the century happened over the next several months. Marcell finished the season slashing .274/.346/.558/.905. He had 40 home runs, 100 RBI, and 138 OPS+.
AMAZING, right?
Another reason for OHzuna’s 2023 was such a surprise performance is how woeful 2021 and 2022 were. AA signed him before the COVID-shortened season and looked like a genius. But somewhere in there, he became “Ozuna from the Braves” and he tanked. Braves Country wanted him gone, but that massive contract, and his off-field problems, made that impossible. In 2021 he hit .213/.288/.356/.645 in 208 ABs. 2022 was no better, slashing .226/.274/.413/.687. He hit 30 HRs and drove in 82 runs in those two seasons combined.
Hail Brian Snitker
All the credit to OHzuna for his sticking with it and for his surprise performance. But props to Snitker for sticking with him.
Ronald Acuña Jr. won the MVP, most seasons Matt Olson would have, and they had incredible seasons. But what Ozuna did should have garnered him comeback player of the year. I realize his off-field stuff from the past will likely eliminate him from such consideration, but what he did from May on was amazing. He even hit the record-tying home run late in the season against Washington.
The noise surrounding OHzuna has quieted down, but Braves Country still wonders if he can repeat the feat in 2024. Time will tell, but nobody will ever take away his surprise performance of 2023.
What is the deal with OHzuna? Is that a new rendering of how the Original Spanish name should appear?i
Yeah, I don’t get the joke or reference either.
Just so we’re clear, I still want him off the team. Those “off-field issues” are DUI and domestic violence. I have plenty of empathy in my heart for the human experience and I believe whole heartedly in second chances for people who genuinely atone for their guilt and experience a true change of heart, and I don’t know what work on himself he has done.
But I’d prefer he do all of that not just off the field, but off the team. Take advantage of the fact that he may actually have trade value, and just trade him. He’s done some things while wearing a Braves uniform that make me embarrassed to be a fan of his team, and notwithstanding the 40 homers, I’d prefer that he not have Atlanta across his chest.
Just out of curiosity, do you feel the same for Bobby Cox and his domestic violence issues?
Or Andruw Jones?
Feels like braves country was quick to have Cox’s back when it happened back then.
Seeing as how Ozuna was the first to call the cops on his wife for domestic violence issues, and how the officers account and body cam footage apparently didn’t match on the last call, I can live with him for the final year of his contract.
The pen and rotation is pretty set, I don’t know what if anything of value the braves need or would be willing to trade him for…salary relief, maybe?
I’m there with you, Alex. Something that most don’t know is that Ozuna was paid $12MM his first season, but his AAV is $16MM. He was paid $18MM last year and will get $18MM this year. Structure is $12MM, $16MM, $18MM, $18MM, and $1MM buyout. That’s how AA got to the 4/$65MM deal. Braves wouldn’t have gotten much in return, but someone would have taken Ozuna’s contract for 1 year.
For me, I was young…16-17 at that time and didn’t really have the mental capacity to believe that my heroes were responsible for heinous things. As an adult, and watching my wife get sexually harassed in her past work environments, I am and remain outspoken against any that will do intentional harm to their women or children.
I will also say this…there’s going to be no good coming out of this conversation, but we can continue down this path if people share their opinions respectfully. We are all here for the same reason.
I would say I’m in a very different place than I was with Jones and Cox. Knowing what I know now, I feel super uncomfortable with how I reacted to learning about both of their domestic violence allegations.
And I hear and agree with you, Ryan.
None of this can be separated in the mind of the average fan from the milieu of social justice activism that means we must now demand the careers of offenders ended. Bobby Cox transgressed (badly) in an era in which that sort of thing was frowned upon but didn’t mean you had to give up your livelihood on top of the appropriate civil and criminal penalties that followed.
I remember a case when I was in college (this is a quarter century ago, of a young woman who was fired from her job as a teacher because it was found out she was a stripper. The response to this case was outrage. Lots of commentary about rights and personal choice and the injustice of her firing. And yes, it is a very different thing to legally expose oneself for profit and to assault someone, but it was a signal that we were entering a new age with a new moral framework, and that only escalated in those intervening decades. It wasn’t that she did something immoral or concerning given her work with children–it was that what she did was no longer considered objectionable under the new moral order.
I guess I’m old fashioned in that I long for some sort of consistency in principle. Can and should an employer terminate someone for personal matters that arguably don’t affect the workplace performance or not? Particularly if that person paid their legal dues and had justice run its course? And if so, should the infractions that result in the end of someone’s career be determined by what is sociopolitically of the moment?
A lot of people condemning Marcel Ozuna didn’t condemn Bobby Cox because society didn’t tell them they had to condemn Bobby Cox in order to be considered a good person. They will caterwaul in objection that they aren’t so simple, but they really are. The concept of “virtue signaling” has traction because it is so apropos.
Stampton, I hear your anger at what may sound like someone piling on not because of what they truly believe, but just because of what they think others want to hear. Please forgive me if I’m mischaracterizing your words: I can hear that you have genuine frustration and I respect where you’re coming from.
I can only speak with respect to my own views and I don’t in any way believe that I have the moral standing to say what others should feel. And with respect to my own views, I am uncomfortable with Ozuna being on the team. I was uncomfortable with Julio Lugo and Rafael Furcal, when they had their DUIs too. I used to be a lot more willing to overlook domestic violence allegations than I am now. Again, speaking only for myself, I think I was wrong then, and I feel more comfortable with where I am today.
Definitely, Ryan C.
I didn’t mean to stir up a hornets nest or anything. Just wondering if something like “time heals all wounds” applies with Cox and domestic violence.
Im also sure I didn’t pay much attention to the news when it happened with him. Can’t quite remember if it happened in pre internet days, but the news cycle was definitely more low key about everything, not like nowadays with twitter and the like.
Edit: seems like it’s more of US changing over the years and recognizing domestic violence as the heinous act it has always been.
Someone must have stuck up for him in the clubhouse. With all the emphasis the Braves put on clubhouse cohesiveness, he might have been gone very quickly. I thought I read somewhere that he was beloved in the clubhouse.
You’d think, if he wasn’t somehow stellar in the clubhouse, that keeping someone like Ozuna might lead to signing guys like Bauer, Puig, Urias, Chapman, etc… Guys that can play but are jerks. No one was patient with Olivera when he sucked; he was just gone. Not that he deserved any chances or had any track record to believe in.