Marcell Ozuna is 29. He bats right, has exclusively been a left fielder the past two seasons with the Cardinals, but was primarily a center fielder in that great Marlins outfield that also featured Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich.
He’s a two-time All Star who had a monster year in Miami in 2017, driving in 124 runs with an OPS of .924.
Ozuna’s career slash line is .272/.328/.784 (AVG/OBP/OPS). His career OPB+ is 112, putting him twelve percent over major league minimum. By comparison, Choo’s is 122, Gallo’s is 116. Odor’s is 89, Andrus’s is 87.
His defense has been criticized but he did win a Gold Glove in 2017, which was probably due more to his monster offensive season and writers who really don’t delve into things like defense, allowing his bat to bleed over to his glove.
Nicholas Castellanos is 27 (he will be 28 by the time the season starts), also bats right, and has mostly been a right fielder the last three seasons.
He’s never been an All Star but he has spent a lot of time on a really bad Tigers team.
His career slash line is .277/.326/.797. So, almost identical to Osuna. His career OPS+ is as well, 113.
While Ozuna’s monster season was three years ago, Castellanos is coming off his offensive peak, the fifty-one games he played with the Cubs after moving to Chicago at the trade deadline. He hit 16 home runs and drove in 36.
If Castellanos was able to keep up his Cubs pace for an entire 162 games, he would hit 50 home runs and drive in 113.
If only free agency came with a crystal ball.
Both Ozuna and Catellanos are getting a lot of attention as being pursued by the Rangers.
Do they sign either one? Or both?
Either would be a badly needed right handed bat and an upgrade to the offense.
Would either, or both, along with Kluber, Gibson and Lyles, be enough to make up the nineteen-game gap between the Rangers and the Athletics?
It certainly puts them in the ballpark.