Marcell Ozuna Could Be the Pirates’ Worst Signing Ever

Before Tuesday's game, Don Kelly said to media that he expected us to see, quote, a different Marcell Ozuna, end quote.

He liked the work that he'd been doing behind the scenes, he'd been swinging the bat a little better of late, the manager is bullish.

And look, whenever we're looking at ways for this Pirates team to maybe get contributions from people who haven't in the past, to try to find a way to keep their head above 500, to stay in this race, yeah.

Getting Marcell Ozuna on track and being the hitter the Pirates hoped he would be would be a big part of that.

How realistic is that?

Good morning and welcome to OffBeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

I have been pretty critical of Marcell Ozuna's performance as a Pittsburgh Pirate.

And I was one of the few people in media who did not like the signing whenever it happened.

It really screamed to me just throwing whatever available money they had left at whoever the top free agent was the week before spring training.

And yeah, I have not seen anything that makes me feel differently this year.

It has been a rough season for him.

And we haven't even seen him play all that much lately.

There was a long period where he just sat and he did some work behind the scenes, but he just didn't get a lot of at-bats.

He did get at-bats on Tuesday night against a right-hander, no less.

And to give credit where credit is due, I think he had some good at-bats on Tuesday.

Base hit up the middle for an RBI, and then in the eighth inning, works the count full, draws a walk via challenge, believe it or not.

And you take one for three with a walk.

One for three with a walk and an RBI is a good day at the ballpark.

And he said afterwards, post-game, that he felt in the past he was maybe overdoing it.

Not, putting more pressure on him or anything.

He's trying not to overdo it.

He knows the at-bats are going to be a little more scarce, or they had been more scarce.

So, don't try to get a week's worth of hits in one swing.

It would be such a boon for this offense if Marcell Ozuna hit like Marcell Ozuna.

Because right now, even with that game in Sacramento against the Athletics, formerly of Oakland, where he did homer as part of that offensive onslaught.

And then he goes to Colorado, and he has that flare single to the opposite field.

Which, not a great swing in my opinion.

He was very clearly beaten on a 95 mile per hour fastball.

But I will give him the credit where he says, try not to overdo it.

That was a swing that was late.

It was defensive at best.

But he wasn't overdoing it, and he got a base hit as a result.

And then he had a couple good swings on Tuesday.

So, you're going to hear the think pieces of, is Marcell Ozuna back?

Those are going to be very popular, I imagine, in the next couple days, or if they haven't already been out.

To which I say, Alexander J. Stumpf, no.

I don't think so.

I still don't see the explosiveness in the bat.

I still have reservations about the hip injuries that he had last year.

I looked mechanically.

I could not see any difference from what he did Tuesday versus, earlier in the year.

I just have too many red flags.

And I have a hard time looking into this camera and saying, yes, the guy with a 598 OPS on the year.

Which is coincidentally 53 points lower than what Yoshi Tsutsugo did as a Pittsburgh Pirate.

He's about to turn it on.

I don't see that.

I don't see that.

Put me on the record for that.

But if he was to turn it on, if we were talking in this hypothetical, this would be the biggest boost.

Because we said, I talked yesterday about how Konnor Griffin had become the Pirates' best right-handed bat.

With respect to Konnor Griffin, that wasn't supposed to be the case this year.

He didn't come into this year, thinking, oh yeah, I'm going to be the team's best right-handed hitter.

No questions asked.

Whenever you have players with some major league experience, whether it's, Triolo, Nick Gonzales.

And then, oh yeah, Marcell Ozuna.

You know who was getting MVP votes a couple years ago.

He was going to be the big right-handed hitter.

And he hadn't been.

And I just don't see anything, really, that I didn't see in April or May.

All I'm really seeing is a guy who hasn't gotten a lot of playing time, finally getting some at-bats and getting some hits with a small sample size.

I'm setting the Yoshi Tsutsugo line.

That's 651 OPS.

Whenever he crosses over that, I will consider, maybe he is actually heating up and maybe this is actually something that is sustainable.

I don't feel any optimism towards that right now.

But it would be huge if he did start hitting.

If he could provide power in that back half of the lineup, which is something they have not had, really, this year.

If they could have consistent right-handed power, something they have not had in this lineup this year.

Because Tuesday's game was an indicator of what happens whenever you don't have that pop.

It's weird to think of the Pirates as a team that have been bailed out offensively at times by the big home run.

When in reality, whenever you have those runners in scoring position and two outs, just a base hit goes a long way.

And the Pirates did not execute that on Tuesday.

They need guys like that who can do that.

And on paper, Marcel Azuna is one of those guys who should be doing that.

It would be a huge boost to this lineup for him to become that guy again.

We're going to take a quick break.

Throw it over to Cody.

We'll be right back.

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Just for reference, Marcell Ozuna's whiff rates against the fastball and breaking ball have held steady compared to May, and he is chasing more out of the zone against breaking pitches now than he did in May.

So I still see the swing and miss.

I still see not the best swing decisions in everything else that I've talked about with the swing beforehand.

I could go on.

Lord knows this isn't the first Marcell Ozuna podcast I have talked about.

But let's just take it from another angle.

Don Kelly says he likes the work that he's seen behind the scenes.

He's always complimented Marcell Ozuna being a good teammate, helping out, talking to guys.

He's not going to throw his player under the bus.

But I never heard him say something so definitively of like, we are going to see a different Marcell Ozuna.

Which is why it stuck with me and why even like, whenever I'm hearing this at, what would have that been?

Like a quarter after three.

I'm like, this might be my podcast tonight.

It needs to be a different Marcell Ozuna.

Because you know what this signing and this stint is?

If he continues to have a 600 OPS the rest of the way, if not lower.

This will go down in history as one of, if maybe not, perhaps the worst free agent signing in the history of the franchise.

Now I know there are some real bad ones.

Derek Bell.

I get.

For a multitude of reasons.

Operation shutdown.

Going on the boat.

Everything about that was horrible.

But at that point, it was the culmination of, it was all done.

The career was all done.

And him signing was not the biggest swing they took that winter.

And I don't know how high of expectations there realistically were.

I know there were some high-ish expectations about those 2001 Pirates.

And then every starting pitcher pretty much gets hurt in spring training.

And that changes a lot of the dynamic of that team.

But I don't think there was a ton of, yeah, 2001 Pirates.

They're going to be, playoff bound.

They should compete for the playoffs.

Period.

Full stop.

There have been bad free agent signings in the history of this franchise.

But how many of them came whenever they were so overtly trying to compete that year?

The adage you see online in a lot of baseball talk is there's no such thing as a bad one-year contract.

This has been so far.

Because that $12 million could have been allocated to pitching, to relievers.

And now they're in a spot where I don't know how much they can add right now.

We're going to see how much they can add come the trade deadline if they are even in a position to add.

And there was some speculation on 93-7 the fan, I believe, on Tuesday.

Well, you could trade him.

You have to eat some cash.

But you could free up money that way.

I don't know what team takes Marcell Ozuna straight up.

His contract is like a Francisco Liriano in 2016 of, if you want to get rid of that contract.

Speaking purely theoretical, have not heard anything to indicate that the Pirates would just want to get rid of the contract or do anything like this.

But it is like a package in with a prospect if you want to get that money off the books.

Because in terms of on-field production, I don't know who looks at what he's done and says, yes, he is right around the turnaround.

I don't know what other of the 29 other teams would say that right now.

Don Kelly is willing to put his neck out for his player and say it.

I have reservations of it.

We will see if he ever crosses that Yoshi Tsutsugo line.

But if his OPS doesn't, then this goes down as perhaps the worst free agent signing in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not just because he has put up negative war, but because it was such a big swing in an area that they really didn't need.

Nobody looked at that team at the end of January and be like, man, if only they had a DH only.

Nobody was thinking that.

But they went for the big swing, thinking they could add one more hitter who has all-star potential.

Like O'Hearn did, or Brandon Lowe did.

Ignoring the red flag that this guy was still available in February.

But that's neither here nor there.

Don Kelly is teasing a different Marcell Ozuna.

And it will take a different Marcell Ozuna for this signing to not be remembered as one of the worst.

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