re: The ATL Thread: Offseason

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If AA needs the DH to see the value in Ozuna, I’m assuming multiple NL GM will too.

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Of course they will. He’s still VERY valuable in the NL, but not quite as valuable as he would be with the DH in the AL. I really don’t think that’s debatable. Certainly each NL GM will have different opinions on how much that matters relative to their respective teams.It may not matter much at all to most teams. But it does matter.

As a Braves fan, I hope we’re a team where it may not matter enough to not offer him close to what he’s looking for. His sheer presence in the middle of the lineup made everybody better—the lineup was better than the sum of its parts (missed Duvall when he went down, though. Even when he was struggling, just knowing that he could run into one at any time had an effect).

Sticking Ozuna in the 3-hole took the lineup from a 1 through 5/6 to a 1 through 9. Pitchers couldn’t afford to cruise through any ABs. They were throwing high leverage, high stress pitches that drained them both mentally and physically earlier than an outing against a different a different lineup would with the same number of pitches.

And he obviously clicked in the clubhouse, bringing contagious energy to the entire team, specifically with the young Latin guys. That was super important playing in front of no fans. However, that magic is not necessarily gonna be there again, especially with a 162 game schedule. We may have just captured lightning in a bottle this year, and it can’t be reproduced. So I can understand why AA would be hesitant to offer him a huge long-term deal without knowing about the future of the DH.

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So ozuna will wait for that development, right?

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Maybe, if he really wants to come back to Atlanta. Or he may want to be in Florida closer to his family in the Dominican and sign with the Rays. Or he may want to go to Boston to wear out the Green Monster. Them re-hiring Joey Cora so soon indicates to me that they’re ready to become players again and may open up the checkbook in a way that prices Atlanta and a lot of other clubs out.